Written Before Listen
Hobo Johnson is an artist who I’m not super familiar with. All I know is that he’s somewhat of a controversial figure in music. I also know that he has a cult like following in his music due to the fact that his music is abstract. Other than that, I have no idea what I’m really getting into. Let’s see how good or bad this is.
Genre-Bending
It’s truly hard to identify this record. I guess at the end of the day, it’s a folk record but it has distorted guitars, spoken word passages and drum breaks. It’s like a mixture of folk music, hip hop, spoken word, pop and alternative rock. It’s honestly cluttered to the brim.
Vocal Performance
Hobo Johnson’s voice wouldn’t be bad if he talked about less annoying topics. He sounds like a nerd who smells bad and you don’t want to be around him. He can’t stop complaining about stuff and you’re fed up with it. Imagine that you voluntarily had to hear this kid for hours on end. Thats what it was like to review this album
Production
Turns out Hobo Johnson produced this album alone. I guess that’s pretty impressive e due to the fact that he played all of these instruments. Unfortunately it’s super sloppy and rickety. The acoustic guitar is devoted to power chords. The electric guitar tone is AWFUL. The drum breaks are bland and everything surrounding it is rather annoying or non-existent. Yeah, not even the production redeems this album.
Politics
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse….HE’S POLITICAL. He opens up this album with a storytelling song where he has sex with the devil himself. Let’s just hope he didn’t pull the condom off this time. He talks about wanting to go to Memphis where MLK. Thats not a good rep as a rapper kid. He talks about social media taking us over right after that. He also disses his own therapist which is pretty messed up if you ask me. The song “Jordan’s House” is a unique topic but like….Everything that surrounds it is super annoying. “Prequel To Animal Farm” is kind of self explanatory as he surfaces his thoughts on socialism. The song “you want a baby” might be one of the most close minded songs I’ve heard all year. Same goes with “you need help”. The last track could be summed up with the title. “Track 9 (The Government’s Not Great)”. I’m not saying I disagree with this statement 100% but this might not be the time to release a song like this. Look, I don’t think of myself as a political know it all, but even if it was satirical, his delivery is so annoying that it strikes down any sliver of humor to it. It’s ok to put politics in your music if you’re passionate and it’s also ok to talk about these topics but his ignorance and his close-minded beliefs make it hard to mask for the 32 minutes this album stands on.
Favorite Tracks
Well, Maybe I’ve been a little too harsh. I will say the opening track is kind of comical but at the same time, the vivd detail of Hobo Johnson having sex with Satan (after the allegations) is disturbing…AND IM NOT EVEN CHRISTIAN. The song “I want you back” I guess is pretty tolerable, and the outro is pretty comical too. I’ll also say that despite my thoughts on this album, it is pretty creative. Other than that, this is straight up anti-music. Yep. Anti-music.
Verdict
Yeah. This might not be my style, but the annoying delivery and topics being discussed make this unlistenable for me. It’s not the worst thing I’ve heard all year but, it is pretty bad.
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