Hide Your Face is the debut album by Japanese musician hide, released on February 23, 1994. It reached number 9 on the Oricon chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAJ for sales over 400,000 copies.[1] It was named one of the top albums from 1989-1998 in a 2004 issue of the music magazine Band Yarouze.
Overview
hide embarked on a solo career in 1993 due to the downtime in X Japan. Initially wanting to hire several different vocalists because he was unsure of his own voice, he eventually began taking vocal lessons from Toshi's coach and sang the material himself.[2]
The song "Frozen Bug '93 (Diggers Version)" is a remixed version of "Frozen Bug", a song that hide wrote and performed with Luna Sea members J and Inoran, under the band name M*A*S*S, for the 1993 compilation Dance 2 Noise 004.[3] Wanting to contrast something unusual with a pop background, hide hired Yukinojo Mori to pen the lyrics to his first two A-side singles. As a kid, hide was fond of Bow Wow's 1982 album Warning from Stardust, where the A-side songs had lyrics in English and the B-side in Japanese. Liking the Japanese lyrics better, hide only realized Mori was their author afterwards.[2] Together with the music for "Frozen Bug", "Eyes Love You" and "50% & 50%" are the only songs hide released for his solo career that he did not write himself.
The album's cover art features a reproduction of a mask, originally created by H. R. Giger, by Screaming Mad George and Joanne Bloomfield.[4]
Hide Your Face was re-released on the Japan only format SHM-CD on December 3, 2008.
Reception
Hide Your Face reached number 9 on the Oricon chart.[5] The 2008 re-release reached number 223.[5]
The album was named one of the top albums from 1989-1998 in a 2004 issue of the music magazine Band Yarouze.[6]
Track listing
All tracks are written by hide, except tracks 4 and 15 lyrics by Yukinojo Mori, and track 9 music by M*A*S*S.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Psychommunity" | 4:04 | ||
| 2. | "Dice" | 3:03 | ||
| 3. | "Scanner" | 3:23 | ||
| 4. | "Eyes Love You (T.T. Version)" | Yukinojo Mori | hide | 5:57 |
| 5. | "D.O.D. (Drink Or Die)" | 2:17 | ||
| 6. | "Crime of Breen St." | 1:17 | ||
| 7. | "Doubt (Remix Version)" | 4:42 | ||
| 8. | "A Story" | 3:13 | ||
| 9. | "Frozen Bug '93 (Diggers Version)" | hide | M*A*S*S | 4:44 |
| 10. | "T.T. Groove" | 0:31 | ||
| 11. | "Blue Sky Complex" | 5:35 | ||
| 12. | "Oblaat (Remix Version)" | 4:47 | ||
| 13. | "Tell Me" | 4:44 | ||
| 14. | "Honey Blade" | 4:31 | ||
| 15. | "50% & 50% (Crystal Lake Version)" | Yukinojo Mori | hide | 5:33 |
| 16. | "Psychommunity Exit" | 19:57 |
Personnel
Main artist
- hide – lead and background vocals, guitar
Musicians and production
- Kazuhiko Inada – co-producer, synthesizer programming
- Terry Bozzio – drums on tracks 2, 4, 10, 11, 14
- Mitsuko Akai – drums on tracks 8, 13
- Junji Ikehata – drums on track 15
- T. M. Stevens – bass on tracks 2, 4, 10, 11, 14
- Michiaki Suzuki – bass on track 12
- Toshihiro Nara – bass on track 15
- Rich Breen – Rhodes on track 6, recording engineer, mixing engineer
- Neil Larson – organ on track 11
- Jerry Hey, Gary E. Grant, William F. Reichenbach – horn on track 11
- Maxine Waters, Julia Waters, Carmen Twillie – chorus on track 11
- Byron Berline – fiddle on track 15
- Tsuneo Tomono – recording engineer, mixing engineer on tracks 6, 10, 15 (band section), 16
- Personnel per the album's liner notes.[7]
Cover versions
Yoshiki composed a piece based on "Psychommunity Exit" as the intro for the 1999 hide tribute album Tribute Spirits.[8] American bassist T.M. Stevens, who plays on the album, recorded a cover of "Blue Sky Complex" for his 1999 album Radioactive. Nightmare guitarist Hitsuji covered "D.O.D. (Drink Or Die)" for Tribute II -Visual Spirits-, while Dezert covered it for Tribute III -Visual Spirits-. Both albums were released on July 3, 2013.[9] The Cherry Coke$ also recorded a version of the same song for Tribute VII -Rock Spirits-, released on December 18, 2013.[10] "D.O.D. (Drink Or Die)" was covered by FLOW firstly at hide present MIXED LEMONed JELLY 2016 in Maihama Amphitheater then recorded the studio version for June 6, 2018 Tribute Impulse album.[11]
References
- ^ "1995年1月" (in Japanese). RIAJ. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
- ^ a b Ichikawa, Tetsushi (December 1993). "Interview with hide". 音楽と人 [Ongaku to Hito]. Shinko Music Entertainment Co., Ltd.
- ^ "Various – Dance 2 Noise 004". Discogs. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
- ^ "H.R. Giger's official website". giger.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-05-21.
- ^ a b "hideのアルバム売り上げランキング" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
- ^ "Top 44 Albums from 1989 - 1998". jame-world.com. 2004-05-09. Retrieved 2013-03-08.
- ^ Hide Your Face liner notes, 1994-02-23. Retrieved 2013-05-12
- ^ "hide TRIBUTE SPIRITS". amazon.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-07-07.
- ^ "Two hide Tribute Albums to be Released Simultaneously!". musicjapanplus.jp. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
- ^ "hide Tribute VII -Rock SPIRITS-". cdjapan.jp. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ^ "hide最新トリビュート盤にHISASHI × YOW-ROW、西川貴教、MIYAVI、GRANRODEOら" (in Japanese). Barks. 2018-04-14. Retrieved 2018-04-14.