Jack Johnson - All the Light Above It Too

Jack Johnson
All the Light Above It Too
2017
Spotify

Singer songwriter and professional Hawaiian Beach guy Jack Johnson has returned with his seventh studio album All the Light Above It Too. For some reason in 2001-2005 Johnson along with a few others managed to convince us to kick off the shoes, stick our toes in the sand and strum away on an acoustic. It was a simpler time and Johnson's music was a release from the painful news of the day. Going back and listening to some of those tracks (cough cough "Bubble Toes") today is likely to make you cringe especially remembering how many fucking times you tried to figure out "Taylor" on your Costco acoustic. I'm bringing up the past so much because Johnson has changed his sound absolutely zero percent. This album could have come out in 2001, 2002 or 2005 and you would not have blinked an eye, but for twelve years to go by with the same exact sound is pretty incredible. It's all about Sunsets, Big Sur, The Moon and stuff you can't control; lyrical content he has warmed over a thousand times. However on this album especially in the opener "Subplots" Johnson begins to sound more like a child entertainer from the 80s rather than a singer songwriter in 2017 (shout outs Raffi). I get being into the Ocean, but shit does every song need to have some kind of element related to the Sea? In Jack Johnson's world the answer is a resounding yes. Calling All the Light Above It Too one note is the understatement of the century because not only do all the songs sound similar they basically have the same lyrics just switched around here and there, it's really something else.

Even the guilty pleasure market is not satisfied here because He has done each and every one of these songs before and done it way better so why come back to All the Light Above It Too? You find yourself desperate for something else, some sort of surprise on this record but it never comes. The album is graciously short at thirty-eight minutes but it feels like a 100 hours of the same thing over and over. "Gather" which has an indigenous percussion feel to it is so tone deaf as Johnson tries to take a political stand that never really lands anywhere other than things are bad and we should get together and fix them. It just feels like He doesn't think his listeners have the mental capacity to really dive into something, or maybe He doesn't have it either. With the tumultuous world that this album was delivered you would think a little time to chill would be nice but it just comes across as the guy who is constantly telling you to "chill out bro". No Jackson Johnson you fucking chill, ok bro?! This record stinks.

2.0 out of 10