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Rated: To Be Announced
Artist:
Jack Johnson
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £3.50
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £4.24
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
Fans of Willy Porter, Ben Harper and G Love will all want to check out the engaging folk and blues-inflected pop of Jack Johnson's Brushfire Fairytales. Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Johnson--a former surfer and film-school graduate--has a knack for acoustic ballads whose calm surfaces hide a subtle but strong lyrical undertow. "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no'," sings Johnson on "Flake", which features crony Harper on slide guitar. Production by JP Plunier (who also handles Harper's recordings) is simple and uncluttered: acoustic guitar and drum tracks share the foreground with Johnson's easygoing vocals, which evoke everyone from G Love (who recorded Johnson's "Rodeo Clowns" on his Philadelphonic) to Nick Drake to Willy Porter. And while Johnson may not have Porter's guitar chops, these songs have a relaxed beauty and understated depth that reward repeated listening. --Bill Forman
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £5.25
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
Fans of Willy Porter, Ben Harper and G Love will all want to check out the engaging folk and blues-inflected pop of Jack Johnson's Brushfire Fairytales. Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Johnson--a former surfer and film-school graduate--has a knack for acoustic ballads whose calm surfaces hide a subtle but strong lyrical undertow. "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no'," sings Johnson on "Flake", which features crony Harper on slide guitar. Production by JP Plunier (who also handles Harper's recordings) is simple and uncluttered: acoustic guitar and drum tracks share the foreground with Johnson's easygoing vocals, which evoke everyone from G Love (who recorded Johnson's "Rodeo Clowns" on his Philadelphonic) to Nick Drake to Willy Porter. And while Johnson may not have Porter's guitar chops, these songs have a relaxed beauty and understated depth that reward repeated listening. --Bill Forman
List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £7.68
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
For a man who gets his biggest kicks surfing the waves and strumming his guitar on a lonely beach in native Hawaii, singer-songwriter Jack Johnson has carved out quite a remarkable career on the mainland. His 2003 album, On and On, went platinum on the back of hit single "The Horizon Has Been Defeated." The follow-up, meanwhile, seems destined to shine even brighter. The drifting chords and soft voice are still in place, only now Johnson's instinct for melody has sharpened alongside his ability to self-edit. These small concessions make third album, In Between Dreams, his most conspicuous, particularly on tracks like the three-minute relationship drama, "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing," and "Breakdown," a song he originally recorded for Handsome Boy Modeling School's White People album remade here to reveal its full stripped-down loveliness. Imagine all the coconuts it will buy. --Aidin Vaziri
List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £9.45
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £5.46
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson has found himself a groove with On and On. Indeed, the Hawaiian surfing champion turned alternative pop-folk star really hasn't changed things one iota for his second release. Fans of Brushfire Fairytales should be delighted with the results. The groove is a mellow one--most of the 16 tracks here are semi-acoustic--and that easy-going spirit filters into Johnson's lyrical philosophies. "What will be will be / And so it goes" he sings on "Times Like These", the opening track. Thankfully, Johnson is never too mellow, and there's a "Don't worry, be happy" vibe to most of his music--"The Horizon Has Been Defeated" even has a pseudo-reggae feel to it. Although classified as an alternative musician, the singer-songwriter's compositions owe much to past hits. "Traffic in the Sky" is reminiscent of Jim Croce's "Operator" and Looking Glass's one-hit-wonder, "Brandy". On the splendid "Taylor", Johnson sounds an awful lot like Donovan, and "By the Way" recalls the Lovin' Spoonful. --Bill Holdship
List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £5.64
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Artist:
Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson's 5th studio album has been highly anticipated, not only because it's been a while since his last recording (In Between Dreams), but also because it's his first 'electric' (as in guitar) album. But despite being co-produced by JP Plunier--the man that produces Ben Harper and the mastermind behind Brushfire Fairytales--specifically to shake things up, Sleep Through the Static isn't that much of a departure after all. The mix of mellow sing-a-longs and slacker ballads are very much in line with earlier work, even if they do feel a little more mature and come with piano flourishes by new band member Zach Gill. The new maturity is evident not only in Johnson's lyrics, which deal with everything from his new life as a father to the Iraq war, but also from the song arrangements, which foreswear the bigger hooks of previous albums for a more even flow. If that sounds like the album fails to push the envelope musically, it should. The songs here are consistently good, but they're not groundbreaking. It might feel to some like an opportunity missed; but on the other hand Sleep Through The Static is full of what Johnson does best: easy-going campfire songs i...
List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £4.45
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List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £7.40
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Artist:
Jack Johnson and Friends
Admit it: If you had to pick an artist to give voice to the wackadoo thinkings of a monkey beloved by most of the American populace over age 3, you could do a lot worse than Jack Johnson. Black Eyed Peas? Too hyper. Death Cab for Cutie? Too ironic. They Might Be Giants? Too eggheaded. Johnson, though the object of much rightful jealousy--here, after all, is a guy who only stumbled into music and vaulted himself up the charts after a successful career as a pro surfer--turns out to have the goods to do H.A. Rey, Curious George's creator, proud. Fans familiar with Johnson's earlier discs will recognize a certain laconic sprawl and easy fascination in his songs that suits the theme of perpetual puzzlement perfectly (here, let's not forget, is a guy who racked up fans with songs called "Bubble Toes" and "Banana Pancakes"). That the music takes a childish turn barely registers--songs like opener "Upside Down" are classic Johnson, all wonderment and groove, and the collaborations with friends Ben Harper, G. Love, and Matt Costa warm up, wink, and scamper off before packing on the weight of excess meaning. "We're Going to Be Friends," track seven, seals the deal--when you can make the Whit...
List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £4.99
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