I’ve enjoyed Jack Johnson’s tunes for years – I discovered his music on the Curious George soundtrack – so I downloaded his new album and I’m still assessing it. Upon the first listen, during exercise, I found it satisfying in that laid back surfer way for when you’re sitting around the firepit on the beach after a day in the sun.
The newest collection, From Here to Now to You, is generally good if you like the scruffy songwriter’s folk musical style. He’s still preachy in spots, and what he’s preaching is often silly and there’s a hillbilly sound here that I don’t recall on previous recordings. The album (sample it here on iTunes) as a progression is sleepy and it suffers like all of his work from a sing-songy sameness. The standout tunes are “Home”, “Radiate” and Shot Reverse Shot”. If you like those, this might work for you. If not, it probably will not. I also listened later while I was doing tedious work and I found the 12-song album more grating than I did while outdoors exercising under the sun, trees and weather. I’ll give it another listen.