Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static
Rating
RIYL
Donavon FrankenreiterG. Love & Special Sauce
Dave Matthews
Mat Kearney
Tracklist
1 All at Once2 Sleep Through the Static
3 Hope
4 Angel
5 Enemy
6 If I Had Eyes
7 Same Girl
8 What You Thought You Need
9 Adrift
10 Go On
11 They Do, They Don't
12 While We Wait
13 Monsoon
14 Losing Keys
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After first catching the attention of his fellow surfing brethren, Jack Johnson then went on to capture the hearts of a million hippies and, somewhere along the line, even managed to convert everyone and their mother into fans of his mellow, simplistic tunage. Not that there's anything wrong with a Hawaiian surfer singing campfire songs about love and banana pancakes, but the phenomenon that came about after the release of his last proper studio effort, In Between Dreams was one that most didn't see coming. Since then, he's been a busy man -- promoting his Green (environmentally friendly) label, Brushfire, recording children's music (most notably the soundtrack for Curious George, which actually did better than the movie itself), and just being an all-around good natured fellow. You can hate on him all you want, but it gets kind of hard to hold a torch and order the burning when you get sucked into his whole "peace and love" mellow persona that oozes from his music like some infesting disease. It has this weird, possibly subliminal, effect on those who give it a listen, or are even just exposed to it.
But when it comes to his new album, Sleep Through the Static, all of his charm and good intentions don't cover up the fact that every song is boring and sounds almost identical. At least his previous albums, while simplistic in nature, had a sing-along aspect that was undeniable. But this one is just kind of there, hanging around for no apparent reason. It's kind of annoying, almost to the point where you just want to grab the guitar from him and tell him to go sit in the corner. Whatever personality was fueling his music before must have been smoked out of him over the past year. Or maybe he just is running out of things to say. Who knows? Regardless, this will probably sell just as many copies as his back catalog simply because fans of this music don't really care about artistic integrity and songcraft because, in reality, they're not important. Innovation isn't necessary when it's just a man and a guitar, especially when the songs are as mellow as they are here. But remember folks, just because it sells doesn't make it worth buying. Overall, this is a mediocre effort from an artist that seems to be content on riding his own coattails until the world runs out of marijuana and tidal waves.
--Timothy Golden
Comments
At least write a little bit more... or are you just running out of things to say? who knows?
JMU
Dubuque
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St. Louis, MO
~Tom
The Silent Ballet: The very best in instrumental and post-rock reviews and coverage.
Roseville, CA
Minnesota
Find me EVERYWHERE:
St. Louis, MO
~Tom
The Silent Ballet: The very best in instrumental and post-rock reviews and coverage.
Los Angeles
plus look at how close the guy's arms are to his body.
postrockpaperscissors
St. Louis, MO
~Tom
The Silent Ballet: The very best in instrumental and post-rock reviews and coverage.
Green Brook, NJ
dude, like totally, take a chill pill. omfg fr rlz.