Jack Johnson, once surfer dude now some guy on a guitar singing cutsy songs gone didactic for the young-uns at an elementary school presentation, the educational subtitle being: Environmentalism, has seriously gone green in his latest album, Sleep through the Static.
Children’s author Shel Silverstein won the award for incorporating moral lessons in kiddy poetry. But Jack Johnson without a guitar wouldn’t cut it close to a Silverstein on a gloomy day.
Jack Johnson 'Green' Mode
Recorded in an extremely eco-friendly studio with solar powered electricity and building designed with low impact fluorescent lighting and environmental friendly flushed toilets, doesn’t make Jack Johnson’s 4th album all that user-friendly.
His lyrics, in a very un-sentimental sense, preach way too much. In this eco-friendly album, Jack Johnson’s easy style and smooth cadence eases away from the boyish go-lucky charm which was evidently witnessed in his previous album, In Between Dreams.
In a deeper sense Sleep through the Static has a metaphoric growth to it that was lacking in In Between Dreams which a critic from Blender donned “lazy dorm-room poetry”.
But Who is Jack Exactly Preaching to in This Album?
His complex lyrics and lyrical storytelling has advanced in a different way. In Hope, the message has in a very deep sense gone too poignant. “All of life /is in one drop of the ocean waiting to go home/ just waiting to go home,” has to be one of the deeper lines in this album.
But this delve away from the sweet-boyish school charm lyrical storytelling does have its consequences. The bigger message Jack is trying to convey gets lost in a lot ways in translation. Although still rich in storytelling, Jack Johnson's point certainly gets glossed over by his agenda. Jack might be losing sleep over his whole environmentalism new deal, but we definitely don't want to.
With a Real Knack for Environmentalism
With two kids and a healthy environmentalism vibe, Jack’s third track to his latest album, Hope, has a definite fatherly feel. There’s a protective aura to his mellow voice as he coos, “Your echo comes back out of tune/Now you can’t quite get used to it/Reverb is just the room.”
Angel a simple track from Jack Johnson’s latest definitely says simpler is better. Some great lines are, “She gives me presents/with her presence alone”, certainly has its ascetics with word play. This heartbreakingly sweet and simple melody almost makes it worthwhile buying the entire album, but with a real knack for environmentalism maybe this is what’s keeping Jack Johnson’s latest off the airwaves.
