It's Jack Johnson's turn to go green

The mornings have suddenly gotten cooler and the malls have started putting out the Christmas decorations. We have reached the last months of the year 2008 and thoughts have now turned to the merrymaking that traditionally comes with the Yuletide celebrations.

Christmastime is a time for great joy but so is summer in other ways. So I thought I’d be the first to give one a proper goodbye before I welcome the other. The best way to do that is to take the time to listen to the songs of Jack Johnson. Lazy or sleepy or just sweetly melancholy, there is nothing like his music to give your energy a respite and ready for the merry months ahead.

Energy. Now, that is a word that figures prominently in Johnson’s latest studio album, Sleep Through the Static. It is his most personal effort and it is so special that I want everybody to know about it. This is not only because of the music, which is, as usual excellent, but because of great news, which should warm the hearts of green advocates everywhere. Truth to tell, it is something that should provide hope for anybody concerned about the energy crisis or where man’s profligacy is taking this world of ours.

It could have only come from nature lover Johnson, who thought of his family and the future of the world they live in while making the album. He is certainly an artist who practices what he preaches. It is because of his loved ones that, Sleep Through the Static was recorded with the use of 100 percent solar energy. That means no electricity was used. Not only that. The album was pressed and printed using only recycled materials, including ink. Hopefully, given the success of the album, other artists might just take a cue from him and follow suit.

Johnson stays in his well-known pop-rock milieu for Sleep Through the Static. But he has ditched the playful mood of the Curious George soundtrack. Maybe it is because of his concern for his wife and children. Maybe it is because a close friend died while he was working on the album. Maybe it is because of other things happening around him. Whatever the cause was, it has taken him away from the devil may care surfer mode. His endless summer is now definitely over.

In a way, the first cut, All at Once, is a preparation for the dark themes Johnson explores in this CD. All at once/ the world can overwhelm me/ there’s almost nothing that you could tell me/ that could ease my mind. That really sounds like the way most of us feels nowadays. He tries to offer peace in Enemy. Then there is Sleep Through the Static which is anti-war and anti-gun. Go On is about every parent’s fear. Should you allow your kids to feel free and unafraid?

No need to worry about becoming despondent while listening to this album though. The music still relaxes. Those songs mentioned earlier, plus Hope, Angel, If I Had Eyes, Same Girl, What You Thought You Need, Adrift, They Do They Don’t, While We Wait and Monsoon have Johnson’s usual lilting melodies and are rendered in his somewhat laconic mellow style. Just don’t listen to the lyrics if you want more of the fun-filled summer.

Besides, in Losing Keys, the last song in the CD, Johnson is in a hopeful frame of mind. The world has its ways/ to quiet us down/ down comes the rain/ down go our spirits again/ but down comes the strength/ to lift us up and then.

Johnson was a surfing legend first before he became a big selling singer/songwriter. He only found out he could write songs after he was nearly killed in a surfing accident in Hawaii. He picked up composing songs while recuperating. Of course, he sang his works. People liked what they heard and he soon became a singing star.

He has since then released the albums Brushfire Fairytales, On and On, In Between Dreams and from two years ago, the soundtrack album Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George. Some of his hit singles are The Horizon Has Been Defeated, Symbol in My Driveway and the Grammy nominated Do You Remember?