After a two year hiatus, the quirky rapper/crooner Johnny Polygon dropped a new album, The Nothing, on February 27. Hailing from Oklahoma, Johnny Polygon is an unsigned artist who has a very distinct style, as his personality basically screams out at listeners through his music. He has done an amazing job at creating a unique sound that is very apparent in each song that he has released thus far. Johnny Polygon is mostly known for his hit single, “The Riot Song”, which was released in April of 2010.
Less is truly more on The Nothing as Johnny Polygon lays down some smooth vocals on relatively simple instrumentals. This is not a bad thing whatsoever as it really helps highlight Polygon’s creative concepts applied to the mic. Johnny Polygon is so incredibly good at building all-around entertaining songs by mixing in dope raps, catchy sing-songy hooks and some interesting and often funny quotable lines. A perfect example of Polygon’s dynamic approach is the track called “Lovesick (Super Nintendo)”, where he raps the verses, sings the hook and even throws in a screwed bridge section. This is also true for the tracks “Whoa Is Me” and “Landscapes”, but with different levels of usage of singing, rapping and other interesting components.
The Nothing is an extremely easy listen as you do not need to pay close attention to complex lyrics or beats. While this can be seen as a good thing, it can leave the listener wanting more of a showcase of Polygon’s rapping skills, which he definitely has especially after listening to his past projects, like Rebel Without Applause. He slightly increases the level of rapping by the end of the album on “Super No Lye” and “How It Feels (Change Your Mind)”, however, it comes a bit too late after a couple of bland songs like “Kosher” and “Magenta”. These particular tracks would be impressive if they were heard separate from the album, but after hearing multiple tracks that all have a very similar overall sound and feel in a row, it can become taxing to the listener.
Despite my few gripes about the album, I can definitely say I thoroughly enjoyed Johnny Polygon’s The Nothing and will be revisiting some select tracks in the foreseeable future. It will be very interesting to see where Johnny Polygon’s career goes from here, as he has all the tools to blow up in the music industry. He has his own distinct sound, his music is pleasant, interesting and very accessible and he also has a marketable personality to keep fans around.