Sleep Through The Static [Digipak] - Jack Johnson

...will change.

Sleep Through The Static, dare I say it, is in fact far better than I thought it could be. I like this more than In Between Dreams, and a couple of the tracks are now my favourite Jack Johnson songs. This is an absolute must for fans of his earlier albums; you really will not be disappointed!

Track 1; 'All At Once' is a fantastic start, a little slower than the following tracks this brings you into the album. ...
...backing guitar and drums. The lyrics are great, as usual, and the song has quite a relaxed feel.

Track 2; 'Sleep Through The Static' is everything you'd expect from a title-track, possibly the best track on the album, this is jack Johnson at his best. Slightly faster than the previous song, some great lyrics (bit of a political theme, in fact, very clever) and another catchey chorus.

Track 3; 'Hope' is a lot more upbeat, ... more

After Jack Johnson released 'In Between Dreams' I was always going to be keeping an eye on what he was doing; I love that album. Unfortunately the Curious George soundtrack didn't really do it for me, apart from a couple of tracks, so when I heard he had released a new album in 2008 I was full of hope, but tried not to expect too much. Also, I was somewhat worried by the apparent lack of hype about this album, even now I can't believe there are only two reviews before this one! Hopefully that will change.

Sleep Through The Static, dare I say it, is in fact far better than I thought it could be. I like this more than In Between Dreams, and a couple of the tracks are now my favourite Jack Johnson songs. This is an absolute must for fans of his earlier albums; you really will not be disappointed!

Track 1; 'All At Once' is a fantastic start, a little slower than the following tracks this brings you into the album. With typical Jack Johnson strong vocals over quite a simple backing guitar and drums. The lyrics are great, as usual, and the song has quite a relaxed feel.

Track 2; 'Sleep Through The Static' is everything you'd expect from a title-track, possibly the best track on the album, this is jack Johnson at his best. Slightly faster than the previous song, some great lyrics (bit of a political theme, in fact, very clever) and another catchey chorus.

Track 3; 'Hope' is a lot more upbeat, the first couple of songs have a slight melancholy feel, but this has a stronger guitar and feels a bit more positive. Again, the lyrics are great, opening with the line "Your shadow walks faster than you". This is classic Jack Johnson and would fit right in with tracks from In Between Dreams.

Track 4; 'Angel' is my low pooint of the album, after a great start... this slows everything right down. Good strong vocals, but I don't like the lyrics that much; little bit too loved-up for my liking. But considering this is my least favourite track, it is still quite good; just for me, not quite as good as the res of the album.

Track 5; 'Enemy' has quite an unusual dream-like feel about it, and the lyrics fit in with that type of theme. Opening lines: "After we spoke I had a dream that I broke, the teeth from the mouth of a snake then I choked, on the teeth they were mine all along..." ok, ok, it sounds pretty crazy, but it's amazing. All of the lyrics are symbolic, as a psychologist I love it (Freud would love this track!), it is really clever and has the great innocent feel that some tracks from Curious George did but with the maturity of In Between Dreams. This is a special track in my opinion, very unique.

Track 6; 'If I Had Eyes' is an average song, made better by the quality of Jack Johnson's vocals and a great chorus. This has a bit more of an upbeat feel than the last couple of tracks. Again, sections of the lyrics are very well written.

Track 7; 'Same Girl' slows back down again, here the vocals overpower everything else, but Jack Johnson pulls it off, some nice lyrics, another great chorus and a really relaxed feel to the song with a gentle, flowing guitar in the background.

Track 8; 'What You Thought You Need' has a slightly different sound to start with, with a stringer drums than usual, but when the guitar and vocals kick in you know it can only be a Jack Johnson track. Again, I've said this so many times with this album; the lyrics are fantastic, really well written, telling a bit of a story about getting lost with someone just to get away from everything; "we can park the van and go to town, buy the cheapest bottle of wine that we can find, talk about the road behind and getting lost is not a waste of time". The chorus is only short, but the melody in the verses sounds great. again, for me this is Jack Johnson at his best, a lovely chilled out track.

Track 9; 'Adrift' is another quite slow track with strong vocals, slow guitar; this has a lazy, laid back feel.

Track 10; 'Go On' is a little more upbeat with stronger drums, great lyrics again and a fantastic melody; "I get nervous when I fly, I'm used to walking with my feet, turbulance is like a sign I can't help but overthink". Another great track.

Track 11; 'They Do, They Don't' has another really catchey chorus, again great lyrics, great vocals... I'm repeating myself here really arn't I?

In fact, I'm not going to bother talking about tracks 12 to 14; these last three tracks, 'While We Wait', 'Monsoon' and 'Losing Keys' (respectively) are just as good as the rest of the album... and 'Losing Keys' is a lovely relaxed finish.

Basically, if you like anything you've ever heard by Jack Johnson, you have to listen to this album. I would advise this to absolutely anyone, it is like coldplays latest album for me, delivered everything I could have hoped for, and a little bit more on top. No matter what kind of music you like, there's a good chance you will like this album; I can't stress enough how good this is. Jack Johnson is a lot bigger in the US than here in the UK so I feel like there hasn't been nearly enough fuss over this album; it will not disappoint you. 

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