Review: Hymns for the Road

There are many ways to tell a story. Through medium, point of view, basic rhythm, and beyond. Stepping into a story is an act of trust. The storyteller can take you anywhere, and while you can get off at any time, the reward of staying on can be breathtaking. You have to trust that whatever you are spending time with is going to be worth it, worth the fear, the anger, the sadness, the discomfort. They who engage with a story have to be okay with maybe being disappointed at the end of it, if they don't find it "worth it".

Or was it "worth it" because you learned something along the way anyway? Tricky tricky, isn't it? 

This is exactly the world you drive into when you pick up this podcast, Hymns for the Road. Set as a post-apocalyptic road trip, what this apocalypse was will surprise you. I would say that it enchanted me along the way. 

Four friends with unknown names are driving through what used to be The United States of America, on their way to the “somewhere better”. This is the most dangerous road trip you may ever experience. It's not Mad Max or Fallout in the sense of sweeping scenes and what I would call a “traditional” apocalyptic vision. This apocalypse requires far more wit than physical prowess, and along with it, a deal of magic. 

This is an ongoing series with no season as of writing this review. Every episode is sitting in a sweet spot of 30-ish minutes or less, and they fly by once you’re in. The listener has to sink into the story and masterful world-building as each segment is a piece of a puzzle. Presented almost as a series of journal entries, the listener has to trust that what is discovered minute by minute will fill out the colorful new world. This is one of those podcasts that maybe won’t give a casual listener enough to commit after the first episode, but if you do it pays off in less than three episodes.

As the listener discovers the new rules of this future America, layers of reflection are folded in across the perspective of each character. One is maybe more positive, another more cynical, more naive. The subject matter is timely, from overt to subtle as the podcast seems to follow our calendar. The Halloween episode fell around Halloween, and I do expect more as we continue through. 

The sound design of this podcast is excellent in the way that it doesn’t feel like it’s sound designed. There are two types of good design in my opinion, the kind that wows you because you notice that it’s great and the kind that you don’t think about because it encompasses the story so well. Hymns for the Road is the latter kind of design. It sticks with the narration like glue, giving the audience just enough to create a world in their mind’s eye - but not enough so that we are distracted by it. There are some moments of squishing, squelching, and violence along the way that may require some listeners to listen on a speaker or not at all. However, each episode thankfully has a list of specific trigger warnings in its show notes. 

There is singing in this podcast, as the title might suggest. Familiar and unfamiliar folk songs become an anchor in the series. If you don’t look at the show notes, the selections are a delightful surprise. The singing isn’t supposed to be good, per-say, it’s supposed to be human. This is the singing of a road trip, complete with the joy of when things don’t line up or the beauty of when they do. 

This podcast is a great choice for a slow listen, maybe not a marathon. Although I did marathon a few episodes when I found it, I am enjoying listening to two to three episodes at a time rather than five or six. 

If you want an excellent piece of fantasy to cozy up with this winter, listen to Hymns for the Road below. From Hodgepodge Audio, written and directed by Anna Maguire.

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