Haruomi Hosono
Yours Sincerely
GHOSTLY
Haruomi Hosono doesn’t need the qualifier of being Yellow Magic Orchestra’s last man standing to make him a fascinating figure, or any of his new material worthy of your time. Before teaming with YMO fellaheen Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi, Hosono had been the toast of Japan’s poetic folk-rock scene with his Happy End outfit, and made quietly quirky electronic soul-pop via 1973’s solo debut Hosono House that would inspire Tokyo’s city-pop sound—and, later, Harry Styles’ tributary Harry’s House. How important was he by 1977? Sakamoto and Takahashi worked as part of Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band until the trio changed its name in time for their 1978 self-titled debut.
As part of a long line of scintillating 21st century solo albums, Yours Sincerely is but one more. But there’s something even more commanding and demanding to be found in this, his 23rd solo expedition, in that it manages to find an oddball space between the exotica and E-Z-listening pop of his youth, together with the mix of ambient techno-tronics, avant-garde vérité, goofy jazz, and Japanese traditionalism that would follow him through the 1980s and beyond. Devoted to the empathetic familial warmth that is omoiyari, Hosono’s new album is a grab bag of lost songs (the primordial free-electro of “Anemo Wheel” from 1984) and re-recorded classics like the heavily percussive “Rojiura (Walking Vibration),” as well as new, hymnal-like naturalistic spirituals (“Note to Mothership”), repetition-heavy lullabies (“Happy Holiday”), weirdly metered ballads (“Aayurveda”), throbbing classicism (“Humming ‘Dream of Love’”), and even hokey, honky-tonk-styled covers of vintage doo-wop hits (“Sincerely”).
If this is any sort of love letter masked as a potential farewell (he’s 79 years young), it sounds magically and menacingly full of life and strangeness. Treasure Haruomi Hosono while we have him. There’s never going to be another.
