The Quadrangle

Issue date: 4/13/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment

The Quicksilver-sponsored surfer and UC Santa Barbara film student, Jack Johnson, recently released his sophomore album named In Between Dreams.

Johnson's earlier work, Brushfire Fairytales, proved to be a huge success and helped the Oahu, Hawaii native achieve international popularity with massive CD sales and headlined tours around the world.
The multi-talented Jack Johnson began playing the guitar at 14 and began writing music in college. Johnson then produced an award-winning surf cinema documentary named "Thicker Than Water," earning him recognition as a talented editor and singer/songwriter. Later on another surf film earned him the Adobe Highlight Award from the ESPN Film Festival in 2000.

Further down the line, Johnson parted from his professional sports career and worked to improve his musical talents. Garrett Dutton, also known as G. Love from G. Love and Special Sauce, noticed Johnson's original style and included him on "Rodeo Clowns," a single from G. Love's 1999 release, Philadelphonic . (MTV.com)

Ben Harper, who happened to be one of his major influences, also came to appreciate Johnson's talents and made a guest appearance on 2002's Brushfire Fairytales. This led to Johnson and Harper touring together in June and July 2003.

Contrary to his first efforts, In Between Dreams comes off as rather boring and lackluster. Johnson's songs are a bit less catchy and memorable, and he seems to have adopted a more jazzy-piano and folksy feel to his music.

The best songs by far are "Constellations," and his first single off the CD, "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing." This is an obvious difference from his earlier CDs, seeing as his radio singles ended up being the fourth or fifth best songs on the album, and the single from his new CD happens to be one of the best efforts.

"Better Together" is a catchy, simple song. "Belle" is short and sweet and sung mostly in French. A song which reflects Johnson's unique singing and mellow guitar is "No Other Way," yet this and many of his songs are not very distinctive.

The rest of the songs are essentially background music without any defining lyrics or melodies. Cliché songs like "Banana Pancakes" tell listeners, "Can't you see that it's just raining/ Ain't no need to go outside." Also, "Staple It Together" is a failed attempt at combining Latin-style percussion and Johnson's soothing voice. Bland songs such as "Situations" also put a damper on the CD.

Johnson's voice is, as always, very soothing and harmonious, but there seems to be something missing from In Between Dreams that was very apparent in Brushfire Fairytales.

If mellow, jazzy music is your thing, then you should definitely check out In Between Dreams. Johnson's voice and guitar playing are still very impressive, but if you really enjoyed Johnson's earlier work you might find yourself a little disappointed in the effort of a follow up album. As one fan put it, "As for In Between Dreams, there isn't much to say other than-coming from Jack Johnson's mouth and guitar-- it's an average album."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools