Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static

Pro surfer, film maker and musician, Jack Johnson now comes out with his fifth album release. Titled “Sleep Through the Static” the Hawaiian singer moves away from his Honolulu base to record the new album in his solar powered studio and house in Los Angeles; where his record label ‘Bushfire Records’ is now homed. Belonging to the more surfer/beach music genre, Johnson is definitely no beach boy. His music reaches out to the more karma loving, relaxed people most commonly found in Australia, New Zealand and his home nation, America. 

Having successfully created four albums, most of them multi-platinum, Johnson is most famous for his upbeat, lazy reggae songs. Most of these contain lyrics inspired by nature, these are on his albums “In Between Dreams” and “Bushfire Fairy tales”. His new disc introduces a more somber and dark tone to his music. According to Johnson’s website his album was supposed to be an introduction to a project where the music was ‘shook up’. 

Maturing as a person and an artist, Johnson expresses the modern fears and common realities that we all find even in his home of Hawaii. The beginning of the album instantly sets the somber tone through the first two tracks “ All at Once” and the self titled “Sleep through the Static”. Johnson sings such lyrics as ‘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’ about the Iraq war. For many who believe that artists need to be more political Johnson’s song is definitely one of the better of the crowd. 

Overall the album portrays Jack Johnson’s brilliance in creating up beat tunes such as “Hope”. Many critics of “Sleep through the static” believe that events in Johnson’s family such as the death of his cousin and world events have inspired this darker change. However, for people new to the musical styles of such albums as “on and on” Johnson’s new style has barley departed from those produced in his previous albums.

This new CD is the first album recorded for a mainstream audience that is recorded wholly off solar power. Johnson as a musician is one of the main figure heads fronting environmental issues in songs and documentaries about pollution in Hawaii, which is why Johnson created his studio which is power 100% off solar power. Along with this “Sleep through the Static” is an album where life and all its tests and tribulations has helped to create another album with so much potential to go platinum again.

Best songs of the Album

1. All at Once - (3/5) Expresses feelings of loss, and creation perhaps of a family

Sleep through the Static - (5/5) Great Reggae beat, about the Iraq War and the Bush Administration.

Hope - (5/5) about death ‘your reflection is a blur/out of focus’

Angel - (3/5) about Jack Johnson’s love

If I Had Eyes - (5/5) about relationships

Losing Keys- (5/5) about care and lose