Music : Jack Johnson "Sleep Through the Static"

Album : Jack Johnson "Sleep Through The Static"

Artist: Jack Johnson
Released: 04 February 2008

Review Album :

by ALAN LIGHT

Jack Johnson may be a former pro surfer, but he ain't no Beach Boy. Where the songs of Brian Wilson (who never actually surfed, remember) celebrate the rush and exuberant triumph of catching a wave, Johnson draws on the sport's solitary, Zen-like side — the gentle, rolling rhythms of his music match his simple, nature-inspired language. Over the course of three platinum albums, plus the bulk of the chart-topping 2006 soundtrack to Curious George, this laid-back worldview has been enough to make the affable Johnson an unlikely pop sensation.

His new disc, Sleep Through the Static, was supposed to be the project on which Johnson shook up his formula. The album reunites him with Ben Harper's producer, JP Plunier, who helmed Johnson's 2001 debut, Brushfire Fairytales. Touring keyboard player Zach Gill has been added to Johnson's usual guitar-bass-drums studio trio, allowing for a slightly wider range of sounds and textures.


But while Johnson has spoken about the darker themes informing the songs on Sleep, and even referenced his punk-rock past, the album isn't exactly a radical departure. Certainly, some of the lyrics here represent a more mature sensibility than the Johnson of goofball favorites such as "Bubble Toes" and "Banana Pancakes." (The Curious George assignment was an inspired idea, since the singer often comes across like a cool, lovable camp counselor.)

Johnson is now a thirty-two-year-old father of two, and his new songs express the contemporary fears and realities that hit home even in his idyllic Hawaiian paradise. The opening "All at Once" sets the tone when he sings that "as the darkness gets deeper/We're sinking, so we reach for love." The title track is a jumbled meditation on the Iraq War. It's a bit too cheeky for its own good ("shock and awful thing" is dated and obvious), but somehow still effective, if only because of its surprising source.

Some of the more ambitious writing, though, just falls flat. "Archaism is a dusty road leading us back to nowhere," from "They Do, They Don't," has to be one of the clunkier lines in recent memory, and building the lite-reggae number "Monsoon" around the phrase "mon-sooner or later" is unfortunate. Johnson also still has a weakness for Deep Stoner Thoughts such as "All of life is in one drop of the ocean."

If the words sometimes suffer from trying too hard, the music on Sleep Through the Static would benefit from being a little braver. Drummer Adam Topol is kept on what must be the tightest leash in rock, and though Gill's keyboards add a few nice, soulful splashes, you can almost feel Johnson and Plunier holding back. In song after song, solos and instrumental breaks arrive only after the singing is all done, extending the tranquility of the grooves rather than disrupting the motion of the ocean. Incorporating some of these unexpected elements — the weird little "woo-woo-woos" at the end of "If I Had Eyes," the guitar buzz that concludes "What You Thought You Needed" — into the bodies of the songs would have gone a long way toward adding the variety and contrast that's generally been lacking in Johnson's work.

Or maybe, in the end, Johnson is best when he's stripped down. The finest moments on Sleep Through the Static are the simplest, like the aching love song "Angel" or "Go On," a sweetly swaying meditation on his growing children. These songs are barely more than sketches, but they're completely realized, with a focus to the sound and a specificity to the lyrics that thelarger-themed numbers never quite attain.

Though Johnson has been keeping up with the headlines, it's clear that his heart is still in the things closest to home: his family and his environment. Sleep Through the Static marks a tentative step forward for this improbable superstar. We'll see if the album's well-intentioned worldliness turns out to be an experiment or if he pushes himself further the next time. Either way, like any surfer will tell you, if you want to ride the big ones, you can't be afraid of wiping out.
Taken From : http://www.rollingstone.com



Track Listing

1. All At Once
2. Sleep Through the Static
3. Hope
4. Angel
5. Enemy
6. If I Had Eyes
7. Same Girl
8. What You Thought You Needed
9. Adrift
10. Go On
11. They Do They Don’t
12. While We Wait
13. Monsoon
14. Losing Keys



Sleep Through The Static - Jack Johnson 2008, video :



"Sleep Through The Static" lyrics

Trouble travels fast
When you're specially designed for crash testing
Or wearing wool sunglasses in the afternoon
Come on and tell us what you're trying to prove

Because it's a battle when you dabble in war
You store it up, unleash it, then you piece it together
Whether the storm drain running rampant just stamp it
And send it to somebody who's pretending to care

Just cash in your blanks for little toy tanks
Learn how to use them, then abuse them and choose them
Over conversations relationships are overrated
"I hated everyone" said the sun

And so I will cook all your books
You're too good looking and mistooken
You could watch it instead
From the comfort of your burning beds
...Or you can sleep through the static

Who needs sleep when we've got love?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
We went beyond where we should have gone

Stuck between channels my thoughts all quit
I thought about them too much, allowed them to touch
The feelings that rained down on the plains all dried and cracked
Waiting for things that never came

Shock and awful thing to make somebody think
That they have to choose pushing for peace supporting the troops
And either you're weak or you'll use brut force-feed the truth
The truth is we say not as we do

We say anytime, anywhere, just show your teeth and strike the fear
Of god wears camouflage, cries at night and drives a dodge
Pick up the beat and stop hogging the feast
That's no way to treat an enemy

Well mighty mighty appetite
We just eat 'em up and keep on driving
Freedom can be freezing take a picture from the pretty side
Mind your manners wave your banners
What a wonderful world that this angle can see

But who needs to see what we've done?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
Beyond where we should have gone
We went beyond where we should have gone
Beyond where we should have gone