Wednesday, June 2, 2010

New Jack

Walking through Target past the electronics section today and I noticed something that wasn't there the day before. I realized that it was a new Jack Johnson CD. Jack Johnson was my jam back in my high school days and In Between Dreams is one of my favorite CDs of all time(to be fair, I will most likely end up having a lot of favorite CDs of all time). A lot of the songs from that CD mean a lot to me emotionally because I listened to them with some of the coolest people you will ever meet. In early 2008 when Jack's next CD was coming out, I was excited. I went to Walmart with some friends and wandered to the electronic section to grab Sleep Through the Static and go home and listen to it. I was disappointed when I finally got a chance to listen to it. It was missing the catchy lyrics and originality of In Between Dreams. It was almost like Jack Johnson had realized what had made him a success on his previous album and decided that he was going to take these songs to a song writing machine, plug in the formula he was going to use, press a button, and out would pop a song and there was track 6 from Sleep Through the Static. The most accurate word I can use to describe that album is forgetable. Sleep Through the Static stopped me from getting excited about Jack Johnson's new CD coming out. I didn't even know he had a new CD coming out until today when I saw it on the shelf. I told myself I would give the new CD a listen because of the good memories I had from the 2005 release. Because AOL.com lets you listen to entire CDs from albums that are being released that week, I decided to listen to the new album before I went to bed. The first two tracks did not seem very good to me. The opener, You and Your Heart, is the first single, and it seems very similar to the song from Sleep Through the Static, If I Had Eyes. I didn't really like that song very much anyway. Past the first two songs, except for a couple of mediocre songs towards the end of the CD, I thought it became a very solid album. Nothing on it really blew me away but I wasn't necessarily expecting it to and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing either. I don't think it was as good as In Between Dreams, but I will definitely be giving it another listen.
Also, Blogger is telling me this is my 100th post!!! Blogger is also probably including a couple of the posts I did on the Lemon Cayenne Pepper Cleanse Blog that was popular for a week. Boo that thing, man.

2 comments:

Daniel said...

it must be frustrating to be an artist and think, "wow, i may never make anything as good as this album." (a la neutral milk hotel)

exciting that jack put out something new, but i really hope he can bring it back to In Between Dreams level one day.

coincidentally, i learned Sitting Waiting Wishing on guitar last week! good timing

David L said...

Yeah, everything prior to In Between Dreams is really solid too, in my opinion. (I know Brushfire fairy tales is Amanda's favorite.) I just haven't listened to it as much.
Did you learn to play and sing Sitting Waiting Wishing backwards so we can film you just like the music video. That would be cool.