Review Summary: Close your eyes, Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains are showing everyone what it's like to be like them.
Folk-punk gets a lot of grief. I mean, I guess for good reason. For the most part, the ideals and visions possessed by the singers of these short-lived acts are unrealistic, optimistic, and a little childish. Most of the albums sound the same: stripped down acoustic, rough vocals, maybe a bare drum set. The themes? Rarely are they more than "*** the state, do drugs". Where does Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains fall, though? How can this album possibility stand out among similar acts and similar sounds in an over saturated genre that rarely turns out a memorable album?
This album stands out because it's the antithesis of modern folk music. Love Songs for the Apocalypse is the one and only full length from Johnny Hobo, even though it's technically a split (two full-length sides, Mantits doing the second half). The special thing about the 9 acoustic tracks from Johnny Hobo is the almost meta way it addresses folk-punk. It's a collection of songs about the punk himself rather than the political ideals he has. The first lines on the first song, "New Mexico Song", perfectly sum up almost every lyric on the album. "As he lights an American Spirit, he asks how I can smoke such ***. I say there's nothing like chain smoking GPC cigarettes. 'Cause any smokes will kill you, but these will make you feel like it.". Nicotine. Self loathing. Cynicism. What more could a folk-punk be? Almost every track here paints singer Pat Schneeweis (AKA Pat the Bunny) as a miserable rebel, living the only lifestyle someone in a folk punk project could live. From the drug use portrated on "Acid Song", the drinking on the aptly titled "Whiskey Is My Kind of Lullaby", to the self hate on "I Want Cancer For Christmas", Love Songs for the Apocalypse shows just how damaging the folk punk lifestyle to someone who believes in it. It's an album that focuses less on the cause, less on the politics, and more on the effects that these beliefs have on the person themselves.
I wouldn't call it a deconstruction of folk punk, but in a meta sense it works perfectly as one. Whether or not Pat intended it, this album paints the cause as hopeless and shows the rebel as doomed from the start. It's not a white flag, not to Pat. But it's not a call to arms, either. It's a whimper of humanity, a way of showing just how far the lifestyle has taken him from what we consider to be a healthy human being. Pat cynically screams on the last track:
"I've got my forty ounce, and a system to overthrow.
Know what to worry about, and nowhere to go.
I traded in my hope for a hangover and a headache.
Who needs love? Not me!
Who needs friends? I got me!
Who needs drugs? Me!
Who needs sex? I got me!"
As far as the music itself, it's simple, but never boring. Despite only consisting of a horn and a guitar, all of the songs are easily recognizable. Almost none of the tracks here feel same-y or blend together at all, and partly that would because of Pat's varying vocal style. This isn't even a particularly short affair. It's 25 minutes, but only 9 tracks. Each song roughly approaches 3 minutes, with only the opening track breaking 4.
Overall, this is an essential folk-punk album. Not necessarily because of how it handle the cause, or the politics of the genre, but rather in the way it shows how the rebel lives. Rarely do albums like this go into the singer's emotions or the lifestyle they lead in the name of anarchism. Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains manage to do just that and create what I see as a meta-masterpiece. Even if you don't like the genre, if you find it derivative and childish or even boring, this album has a lot to offer.
Put yourself in Pat's shoes for a minute, I guarantee they're worn and holey - they'll fit just about anyone.
