Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static Album Review

Sleep Through the Static by Jack Johnson, Album Review

“Sleep Through The Static” is the fifth album from former pro-surfer, filmmaker and singer songwriter Jack Johnson, released in the U.S. on February 5, 2008.

The effort was announced on Johnson’s personal website as renovation began for the release of this new album. It was recorded at L.A.’s Solar Powered Plastic Plant, which makes it Johnson’s first album not made in Hawaii.

Jack Johnson Sleep Through the Static Album Cover

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static Track Listing

1. “All At Once” - (3:38)
2. “Sleep Through the Static” - (3:43)
3. “Hope” - (3:42)
4. “Angel” - (2:02)
5. “Enemy” - (3:48)
6. “If I Had Eyes” - (3:59)
7. “Same Girl” - (2:10)
8. “What You Thought You Need” - (5:27)
9. “Adrift” - (3:56)
10. “Go On “- (4:35)
11. “They Do, They Don’t” - (4:10)
12. “While We Wait” - (1:26)
13. “Monsoon” - (4:17)
14. “Losing Keys” - (4:28)

The first single, “If I Had Eyes”, was released via Johnson’s MySpace page on December 17, 2007. It was followed by “Sleep Through the Static”.

The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling about 375,000 copies in its first week, including 139,000 digital downloads. This was a record high for weekly digital album sales.
It also debuted at number one on the Worldwide chart with sales of 577,000.

My friends and I have just finished recording a new album called Sleep Through the Static. At this point in my life I weigh about 190 lbs and my ear hairs are getting longer. I also have a couple of kids. My wife popped them out, but I helped. Some of the songs on this album are about making babies. Some of the songs are about raising them. Some of the songs are about the world that these children will grow up in; a world of war and love, and hate, and time and space. Some of the songs are about saying goodbye to people I love and will miss.

We recorded the songs onto analog tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles. One day, JP Plunier walked into the studio and told us, “It has been 4 to 6 feet and glassy for long enough,” and so we gave him a variety of wind and rain as well as sun and so on. And Robert Carranza helped to put it all in the right places.

After inviting Zach Gill to join Adam Topol, Merlo Podlewski, and myself on our last world tour, we decided to make him an official member of our gang. So our gang now has a piano player, which probably makes us much less intimidating, but Merlo, our bass player, is 6′3″ so we are still confident.

All of these songs have been on my mind for a while and it is nice to share them. I am continually grateful to my wife who is typing this letter as I dictate it to her.

I hope you enjoy this album.

Mahalo for listening,

Jack Johnson

All in all, Jack Johnson’s “Sleeping Through The Static” is exactly how I described the song “Enemy”: the album doesn’t seem to musically go anywhere. It just is. There is no flavor that makes it really stand out among newly released music. Its mediocrity is not appealing and what good songs it does contain can be downloaded from the Internet.

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static Album Info

Released Germany February 1, 2008, Australia February 2, 2008, United Kingdom February 4, 2008, United States February 5, 2008
Genre Acoustic rock, Pop rock
Label Brushfire Records, Universal Records

sources wikipedia.org and amazon.com