RockRoast

Jack Johnson is the kind of musician whose work has such instant, widespread appeal that pretty much everybody has heard his stuff at one time or another—whether they intended to or not. The man is everywhere. He’s extremely prolific and continues to flood the market. By the time people are beginning to forget his last batch of songs they have a whole new set to get stuck in their heads. But if Jack Johnson’s latest release is any indication, perhaps his music is better taken one song at a time.

Sleep Through the Static consists of fourteen songs, fifty-one minutes, and no memories. It took until my third or fourth listen to even begin differentiating the tracks from one another. A few of them have started to stand out as having particularly catchy hooks or melodies and a few even stand out as being particularly bland. But the spectrum of quality and variety is about as wide as, say, one of Johnson’s guitar strings.

I suppose that could sound like a good thing—at least the record is consistent. But it is also mind-numbingly repetitive and disappointingly unadventurous. Jack Johnson’s music is easily some of the most inoffensive stuff I’ve ever heard. It can be appreciated immediately after just one listen. But it also takes no risks. And while it may not contain anything that makes you cringe or anything that is most delicately described as “an acquired taste,” it also contains nothing outstanding. Johnson sticks to his light, poppy, mostly acoustic guitar work, his bouncy melodies, and his winsome, laid-back crooning and refuses to make any effort at experimentation. Not that I’m saying his next record should be a post-metal opus or anything. But he seems hesitant to test his limits and explore his abilities, and that leaves Sleep Through the Static sounding flat and, ironically enough, soporific.

While there are a few respectable standout tracks, such as the upbeat, infectious “Hope” and the strangely uplifting “Go On,” they only stand out like a missed strip of grass on a badly-mowed lawn. For hardcore fans of Jack Johnson’s previous work, this may be a welcome addition to a collection. But for those people who have just enjoyed a few songs here and there, it’s probably best to advise you not to let one good song convince you to buy the whole album. Buy that one song from iTunes and enjoy it for what it’s worth. Listening to fourteen of these songs may—after you wake up—leave a bad taste in your mouth for something you used to enjoy.

My score: 3/10

Available at Amazon.com

It is now three months to the day since the release of the Eagles’ Long Road Out of Eden, and I have to say I am seriously impressed. 

A strange musical trend lately seems to be having really old band members get back together and start recording like the last few decades of silence never happened.  A lot of these bands have found that they don’t have much of an audience anymore, or at least not an audience that is interested in hearing new music from old chart-toppers who are way too old to be in rock bands.  But the Eagles have pulled off a pretty impressive comeback.

Long Road Out of Eden has gone platinum in a handful of countries (Sweden caught me a little by surprise) and is currently closing in on three million stateside sales.  This, from a band that hasn’t released a truly new studio album in almost thirty years.  A band whose members average about the age of ninety-seven.  That’s not something I expected to see.

And apparently, all those years of not having Eagles music to write left them with a lot of unused creativity, because the band felt prompted to release a double album with more than ninety minutes of music.  And what’s shocked me the most is that it actually sounds like the Eagles.  The years have not challenged the musicians’ vision of what Eagles music is.   They picked up just about where they left off.

The album is leisurely paced, with the signature sounds of the Eagles’ particular brand of folksy country-rock.  The first track is a stunning two-minute a capella piece that, while a bit adventurous, opens the album well with a slow melodic hook and careful harmony.  This leads into the first single, “How Long,” which, though not on par with their hits of the past, builds confidence in their ability to revisit those glories.

Probably just due to its being a double album, it begins to drag a bit near the end of the first disc and fails to pick up the pace over the course of the second.  Highlights along the way are the melancholy, emotional “Waiting in the Weeds” and the slightly more agressive, more And though no individual track reaches the heights of “Desperado” or “Hotel California,” Long Road Out of Eden passes itself off as just worthy enough to stand as another addition to the already impressive Eagles library. 

I, for one, look forward to their next release.