Album Review: The Revenge Of Hobo Johnson by Hobo Johnson

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Frank Lopes Jr., or better known by his stage name, Hobo Johnson, is a singer and songwriter from California. He first started making hip hop music at the age of fifteen, but didn't release his debut project, Hobo Johnsons 94 Corolla until 2015. After his debut, he embarked on a trilogy of albums that starts with the rise, then the fall, and finally the revenge. With that being said, The Revenge Of Hobo Johnson marks the fourth studio project from Hobo Johnson.

The first track from the album is Anton LaVey. It opens up much different than I would expect since we just have a normal acoustic guitar that carries on for a good majority of the track. We also have the normal chorus of vocals in the back. The title of the track refers to the person who created the Satanic church and it seems like there's a lot of references to that throughout the track. The last minute the track takes a huge turn with the reverbed guitar parts.

I want to see the World is another track that opens up with just an acoustic guitar, and it features more of a spoken word part from Hobo Johnson. We also get some drumbeats during the chorus as well as some inaudible clips. There's really nothing much from this track other than him exploring about different things that have happened around the world. However, things eventually start taking a deeper and darker turn with him mentioning some of the horrible things that have happened in the world's recent history.

I want you Back features a brighter and glitzier guitar part. Hobo Johnson also is back with his singing/rapping compared to the previous track. We also get his dog named 'Fish' barking at the beginning, which you can hear from him saying, "Stop Fish." Hobo Johnson talks about how he wants this person back, but then talking about spending all of his money on therapy to get over them. As the track progresses, he accepts the situation he's in and also talks about how big media companies feed off advertisements.

 

My therapist opens up with inaudible vocals, then of course we just have an acoustic guitar to carry on the beginning of the track. We eventually get some drums and an electric guitar added later on, but it's definitely stripped down. Hobo Johnson talks about how his therapist thinks that he has good ideas, but that's only because the therapist is getting money to listen to his ideas. He also talks about some business ventures and how he'd be able to help people with the money. 

Jordan's house starts a bit more sadder with the guitars. We have some backing percussive sounds like a tambourine, but other than that, nothing too much is added on here. Hobo Johnson continuously talks about going to Jordan's house, but we really don't get an idea of who this Jordan person is or what is at his house. It seems like Hobo Johnson may be ranting to this Jordan person, but he doesn't really care what he has to say.

Now we come to the longest track on the album, Prequel to Animal Farm. Just like most of the other tracks, it has a similar format with the guitar, drums, and we also get the chorus of vocals added on to this one. While I haven't read the book, the track seems to follow the life of a pig that lives on this farm. However, even though it follows the life of a pig, it seems like he's trying to compare it to life and how people just work until they die.

You want a baby is a pretty short track on the album and I would say it's literally the most stripped back track from the album. Just Hobo Johnson's vocals and an acoustic guitar, that's all there is to this track. Since there isn't much for instrumentation, Hobo Johnson really wants us to focus on the vocals. There's several points to the track, but it all circles back to the concept of relationships. He questions why people would want children in a world like this, and also questions why people would want to get married, even though his girlfriend wants that.

You need help starts to speed up and make the album a bit more exciting again. As I said before, the album really doesn't have much for instrumentation, but we get the chorus of vocals, an exciting guitar, and drum parts. It all comes down to the chorus where he asks the question, "chemicals or depression." Hobo Johnson is wondering if he should just take the pills to make him better, or just stick with the depression. However, he knows whichever way he goes, it's going to harm him.

Song 9 (The Government's Not Great) marks the loudest track we have on the album. While it starts out quiet with a light guitar part, after the opening verse, we finally get the loud guitars and Hobo Johnson's angsty vocals. You can probably judge by the title of the track, but Hobo Johnson talks about all the pitfalls and problems in the United States. He talks about the bombings and wars from the government, as well as the twisting of stories from the media.

The final track we have on the album is Outro, which really isn't that much of a track. While it does have a backing beat, it's mostly just a narrator talking about thanking his fans for listening to this album. The narrator talks about limiting your screen time and time with social media since it can have a negative effect on people. The last part of the track jokes about Hobo Johnson's next album and name drops Drake and Pusha T.

While there were some decent tracks on here, a lot of the tracks just started to melt together since he didn't really switch up the instrumentation. It's not a bad album overall, but I could have used some variation from track to track.

Overall Rating: 6/10

Favorite Tracks: Anton LaVey, I want you Back, You need help

 

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