Vinyl Record
Hothouse Flowers - Home
Hothouse Flowers - Home on LP vinyl. A 1990 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 1990
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 1990 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Home is the Hothouse Flowers album where the Dublin band's broad-hearted blend of rock, soul, gospel energy and Irish melodic instinct stretches into a larger, looser second statement. Released in 1990 after the breakthrough of People, it does not simply repeat the bright rush of Don't Go. Instead, it sounds like a band testing how much warmth, movement and spiritual lift they can carry across a full album without losing the rawness of musicians playing in a room. The record's title is well chosen. Home keeps circling ideas of belonging, motion and return, but it does so through performance rather than slogan. Liam O Maonlai's voice is central: open-throated, searching and capable of moving from intimate reflection to communal release. Around him, the band works with piano, guitar, rhythm-section drive and gospel-tinged lift, giving the album a handmade exuberance that separates it from much of the polished early-1990s rock around it. What makes Home worth revisiting is its refusal to be cool in the detached sense. It is earnest, physical and often expansive, with songs that seem to believe in music as a gathering force. That makes it very much of its era, but also distinct within it: an Irish rock record with soul roots, live-band generosity and a willingness to let feeling stay unguarded.
Home matters because it shows Hothouse Flowers trying to grow beyond the expectations created by their debut while keeping the warmth that made them unusual. Its chart success in the UK and Australia confirmed that their mix of Celtic rock, soul, gospel and pop had international reach. In a collection, it represents a strand of Irish rock that favors uplift, musicianship and emotional openness over pose.
This is the Hothouse Flowers record to own after People if you want the band's early promise expanded rather than merely repeated. It belongs on a shelf of Irish rock, roots-conscious pop and late-1980s-to-early-1990s albums where live-band feel still mattered. Collectors who respond to records with communal energy and big-hearted vocals will find Home more durable than its period surface suggests.
Expansive Irish rock with soul and gospel lift, ringing piano and guitar, open vocals, live-band momentum and warm early-1990s production.
Recommended for: Collectors of Irish rock beyond the obvious canon; Fans of soulful, gospel-tinged band performances; Listeners who like earnest roots-pop with live-room energy.
When was Home released? Home was released in 1990 as Hothouse Flowers' second studio album. How did Home perform commercially? It reached the UK Top 10 and was a major chart album in Australia, confirming the band's reach beyond Ireland. What does Home sound like? It mixes rock, Celtic melodic color, gospel lift and soul-inflected vocals in a warm, expansive band setting.