Polonsky’s tease hints at the fun he finds in uncertainty, a recurring lyrical theme throughout all ten songs. “I’ve been waiting so long / Just to tell you, tell you something / Wonder if you know what I will tell you / Of my secret,” he sings at the opening of the track. Next in line is another highlight, “How Much Do You Know?” Fans of the Smashing Pumpkins will hear fellow Chicago native Billy Corgan incarnate in multiple guitar parts throughout this song, but there’s also a sunniness to the song that is decidedly non-Corgan. “Where the Signs End” is the album’s greatest rocker, where Polonsky busts out his wickedest riff and guitar solo and even opens up the pipes for some cathartic screams. Polonsky, who plays all the instruments save a few drum tracks carried by A Perfect Circle’s Josh Freese, introduces violin, tambourine, and keyboard into a few cuts.
With a name like The Power of Sound, you’d also expect a broader musical palette than just guitar, drums, and bass – and that’s what you get – well, sorta. Either way, you’re sure to conclude one thing – this stuff is sweet! Frank Black, a favorite artist of the teenage Polonsky, makes his presence felt through driving and multi-layered rock made accessible and fun. Listening to the album, you might hear an edgier Matthew Sweet, or perhaps a poppier and more melodic Sweet Water. Droge also dug Polonsky and helped him to get a contract with Loveless Records, who agreed to release The Power of Sound. When American lost its distribution deal, Polonsky was back on his own, and it took him five years to release the There is Something Wrong With You EP on eggBERT Records.ĭuring a subsequent tour, Polonsky met the like-minded Pete Droge, whose song “If You Don’t Love Me, I’ll Kill Myself” served as the wonderfully wry soundtrack to the snowball fight scene in Dumb and Dumber. The result was 1996’s Hi My Name is Jonny, also produced by Frank Black. Black produced a proper demo tape for Polonsky and hooked him up with a manager, helping him to sign a deal with American Records in 1995. The rock/power-pop singer/songwriter from Wilmette, IL first impressed Black with a homemade tape back in the early ’90s.
Handpicked by Frank Black and Pete Droge, Polonsky’s got built-in credentials. At only ten songs and 31 minutes in length, it’s over before you’re ready, but it doesn’t give itself the chance to let you down. In a cliché just begging to be exploited, this is one powerful album, a blitzkrieg of grungy power-pop. For the rest of us, it’s a full-fledged indoctrination into the music of a man we should’ve been listening to all along. Jonny Polonsky’s first full-length in eight years, The Power of Sound, should be a welcome surprise to anyone who had the good fortune of discovering him in the mid-’90s and since assumed his career’s demise. Jonny Polonsky – The Power of Sound ( Loveless Records)
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