Strange Hobby is the first and only album of Arjen Anthony Lucassen

Arjen Anthony Lucassen

Arjen Anthony "Oswold Jr." Lucassen is a progressive metal/rock composer, singer and musician from the Netherlands, best known for his long-running progressive opera project titled Ayreon....

's musical side-project Strange Hobby. The album features covers of songs that have influenced his musical development, mainly from the '60s

1960s

The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

.

As he did in his solo album Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy

Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy

Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy is the debut solo album of Dutch composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released under the name Anthony. He sang most of the vocals and played all the instruments himself....

, Lucassen makes all the vocals and all the instruments (except drums and synthesizer), and arranged all the songs himself. The album and the booklet contains no information about Lucassen and don't explain who was responsible for the recordings, to make the album even more "strange".

Track listing

Commercial reception

The album was a commercial loss, partially because Lucassen wasn't very well known yet (his success really started with Into the Electric Castle

Into the Electric Castle

Into the Electric Castle is a progressive metal two-disc album released in 1998 by Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen A. Lucassen. It is the third album of his Ayreon project....

). Years later, Arjen stated "it may not be smart from a commercial point of view, but it was fun".