Album Review: The Unknown Confirms Vincent Poag is the Best-Kept Secret in Songwriting

On his latest record, the Long Island songwriter leans into chaos, beauty, and bittersweet reflection with a wink and a warm heart.

A Journey Into The Unknown

When Vincent Poag sings “All aboard, buckle up for the ride of your life,” he’s not just launching into a song—he’s preparing for something more profound: a journey into The Unknown, a record that stares down life’s weirdest moments with poetic whimsy and quietly devastating clarity.

A Voice with Heart and History

Poag remains one of music’s quiet treasures, a singer-songwriter crafting thoughtful, genre-blurring songs filled with soul.

Released in August 2024, The Unknown is Vincent Poag’s fifth studio album and perhaps his most personal yet. Across ballads, gospel-touched choruses, and flashes of Americana, the songwriter paints a vivid portrait of life’s unpredictability—its slow dances, sucker punches, and surreal detours.

It’s not easy listening, but it’s brutally honest, and that’s Poag’s sweet spot.

Songs that Balance Chaos and Clarity

That same unmistakable voice—gravelly, sincere, and full of heart—anchors The Unknown. Many listeners will already know it from his modern holiday classic, “This Christmas,” which has quietly amassed over 4.8 million views on YouTube and earns regular December airplay.

The album opener “Use It or Lose It” sets the tone, a gently urgent reminder that time doesn’t pause, even for the sentimental. From there, the record masterfully weaves through emotional highs and lows: the tender ache of “This Love of Mine,” the wistful charm of “Oh What a Beautiful Girl,” and the raw simplicity of “She Don’t Need”—a standout for its stripped-back intimacy and Vincent Poag’s own guitar playing.

The Story Behind “The Unknown”

But it’s the title track, “The Unknown,” that forms the album’s gravitational centre. Equal parts theatre, fever dream, and existential monologue, it’s Vincent Poag at his most experimental—and most vulnerable. Lyrics like “Rusty boots tummy butt / Armpit nose pick strays” sound like throwaway absurdity, until you realise they’re brushstrokes in a broader portrait of life’s messy, hilarious chaos.

Inspired, in part, by a jarring visit to the ER and the surreal soundtrack of an Irishman demanding his doctor, “The Unknown” blends humour and horror in a way that feels disarmingly familiar. Everyone has asked, What the hell’s going on? Vincent Poag just managed to make it rhyme.

Elsewhere, songs like “Billy” prove his ear for melody remains sharp, while “Tabernacle Inn” delivers a visual and lyrical world that’s part Tom Waits, part Broadway, part barroom confessional. Throughout, Poag’s voice carries the weight of years lived—part gravel, part smoke, always warm.

Echoes of Influence, Uniquely Poag

As ever,Vincent Poag’s songwriting owes a quiet debt to the artists who shaped him: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, the Great American Songbook. But where his early work leaned more clearly on those inspirations, The Unknown feels distinctly shaped by Vincent Poag’s own perspective and voice, a curious, heartfelt document of someone still searching, still observing, still laughing through the mystery.

Finding Meaning in the Mess

There’s no grand declaration here, no attempt to tidy the mess. What The Unknown offers is something smaller but infinitely more moving: a reminder that life rarely makes sense, but it’s still worth singing about. And if Vincent Poag is behind the mic, even the chaos feels like home.