Jack Johnson- Sleep Through the Static

Sleep Through the Static is Jack Johnson's fourth studio album. It was released around two years ago, February 2008, so it's not the most recent release, but I wanted to do a Jack Johnson review at some point. So now's as good a time as any.

For those of you familiar with Jack Johnson (and I'm assuming that most would be), you can expect a lot of classic "Jack" in this album. You can still find his soft acoustic tunes and his down to earth topics, but look for significantly more instrumental mixture in within this album. In addition to acoustic guitar, piano, and drums, listen for some horns, flutes, synth, a stronger focus on electric guitar, among others. Variety is often a good thing, but it seems that the best keep the instrumental simple and clean, giving focus to the content of the words.

Johnson keeps with his set array of down to earth topics: love, life, and war. As in the past, he manages to create a couple nuggets in each category. "If I had eyes" gives an upbeat ballad of chasing love. "Angel" slows the pace down, trims down to acoustics, and sets a mellow tune to speak of a valued relationship. "Sleep Through the Static", the title song, gets to American values. The chorus especially, gets to his point: "Who needs to see what we've done?/ Who needs 'please' when we've got guns?" Whether this song may be found a little too preachy to some, I applaud Jack for speaking his mind and heart in his songs. You can tell his hearts in every song, and I find that very refreshing. A song near the end of the Album, "Go On", is really his reflection to his kids, slowly growing up before his eyes.

So final verdict? Some of the songs I loved, notables being those that I mentioned. But some astonished me with strange instrumental choices and an awkward blend of tones. This is not a thoroughly brilliant album, but it has pockets of quality. I'd recommend listening to the better parts of it, but only such.

-Josiah