Happy End (はっぴいえんど) is the self-titled debut album by Japanese folk rock band Happy End. Because their third album is also self-titled, although written in English, this first album is also known by the name "Yudemen" (ゆでめん) after the sign depicted in the cover art. Five bonus tracks were added when the album was included in the March 31, 2004 Happy End Box set.

Lyrics

All the album's lyrics were written by Takashi Matsumoto, with the exception of "Tobenai Sora" (Haruomi Hosono) and "Ira Ira" (Eiichi Ohtaki). Michael K. Bourdaghs wrote that the first track "Haruyo Koi" ("Come, Spring!") is about "ordinary daily life in the city. Specifically, they take up the boredom of one who faces the New Year holiday alone, sitting by himself at his kotatsu after having abandoned his rural family home for a new life in the city."

Reception

This album marked an important turning point in Japanese music history, as it sparked what would be known as the "Japanese-language rock controversy" (日本語ロック論争). There were highly publicized debates held between prominent figures in the Japanese rock industry, most notably the members of Happy End and Yuya Uchida, regarding whether rock music sung entirely in Japanese was sustainable. Previously, almost all popular rock music in Japan was sung in English. The success of Happy End's debut album, as well as their following album Kazemachi Roman, proved the sustainability of Japanese-language rock in Japan. Julian Cope, English musician and author of Japrocksampler, referred to 1970's Happy End as clearly the band's best work. Both Cope and HMV Japan noted similarities to work by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Legacy

The song "Shin Shin Shin" inspired the 2013 film of the same name. The album cover was featured in the first episode of the 2017 anime Tsuki ga Kirei. In 2021, photographer Mike Nogami released the photobook Yudemen containing pictures he took of Happy End during the recording of the album and an interview with Shigeru Suzuki. The song "Juuni Gatsu no Ame no hi" (12月の雨の日, "A Rainy Day in December") appears diegetically in the Japan-only PlayStation 2 game Boku no Natsuyasumi 2, set in August 1975 in a fictional coastal town in southern Japan. In the game, Yoshika, a mysterious college girl, performs a solo acoustic rendition of the song around a campfire on one of the final days of the game's story while reminiscing on the events of the preceding month.

Track listing

Personnel