Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static

Over the last few years, one of the most surprising success stories has been that of Jack Johnson. It's something that most reviewers mention when they write about him, and is almost always used in a derogatory way because most reviews of Johnson are fairly negative. This is much less surprising than the fact that his last album proper In Between Days sold over a million copies on these shores, because if there's one thing music critics hate more than someone who is successful, it's someone who is successful making music that they feel is 'beneath them'. And Johnson certainly does that, with the only real surprise being that his laidback folky tunes have appealed to enough people to sell so many copies. Sleep Between The Static though is much less likely to shift units, certainly not in the quantities of its predecessor, but this particular music critic remains a big fan nonetheless. It won't do as well because it's less immediate than In Between Days and has far fewer tracks that hook you in in the kind of way that the people who buy all their music from Tesco need to make them splash out. This is fairly surprising, as Johnson had indicated beforehand that there would be more electric guitars on this album than usual, not that you would particularly notice, as many of the songs wash over you like the waters of the ocean lapping at Johnson's bare feet as he sits under a tree dreaming up some new lullaby to sing us. You can criticise this album for lacking songs that grab you by the throat, or for lacking any kind of edge whatsoever, but why should that be a bad thing? Johnson's very laidback approach to music and to life in general is almost a cliche now, but clearly he feels passionate about some things, like the environment for example, having made this album entirely using solar power. And what exactly is wrong with having music that is chilled, relaxed and folky? Not everyone has to sound like The Cribs do they? Sleep Through The Static is uncomplicated and easygoing, but in tracks like single If I Had Eyes, Adrift and the lovely Go On, Johnson proves that no-one does what he does half as well as he does it, and while he can be criticised for hardly developing his sound over the course of four albums (plus one soundtrack album), the formula is as charming as it was back in 2001 when he first emerged, so if you are looking for an album that sounds like a blissed-out campfire strumalong on a Hawaiian beach, this is still the one for you.

Morcheeba - Dive Deep

Morcheeba have been suffering from a slight identity crisis ever since parting company with lead singer Skye Edwards in 2003. Without her distinctive vocals, 2005's The Antidote came in for some criticism, with her replacement Daisy Martey not convincing many that she could fill Edwards' boots and she didn't last long. They now have Jody Sternberg as their live vocalist, but have seemingly decided to take the Zero 7 approach of getting in guest singers for various tracks on Dive Deep. The danger of this is that a band who are still so associated with the powerful and soulful vocals of Edwards could now end up making albums that sound more like compilations than cohesive works of art. To be honest, Dive Deep does often fall into that trap. That isn't to say that it's a poor album though, because while it lacks some cohesion and a definitive identity, there is a lot of quality music contained within, some of the best of Morcheeba's career. Opening track and lead single Enjoy The Ride is one such highlight, with Judie Tzuke's excellent vocals more than making up for the lack of that 'signature' Morcheeba sound from their early hits and she also does well on the equally impressive Blue Chair. Manda also has a few very nice vocal performances on Gained The World, Flowers and the Gallic tones of Au Dela, and while some of these tracks verge on the Zero 7 territory, they're all very nice, so it's hard to complain. Things take a Massive Attack twist on One Love Karma, right down to the title and the gritty urban vocals from Cool Calm Pete, which are at odds with most of the rest of material on the album, and it is this kind of issue that makes Dive Deep occasionally an odd album to listen to. Morcheeba have always been tough to classify and this kind of diversity is neither new, nor a particularly bad thing, but the fact is that you could hear any of these tracks individually and not necessarily work out who they are by. And that cannot really be a good thing for a band like Morcheeba, no matter how impressive some of those tracks are.

Rascal Flatts - Rascal Flatts

Rascal Flatts are one of those very American bands who don't seem to have a chance of replicating their success on these shores. They're a country band who sell bucketloads in the States by playing to the safest market with a load of syrupy ballads and the odd twangy rocker to get people up and dancing. Heck, two of them are even cousins while the other one is called Joe Don Rooney. They could hardly be anymore American if they painted themselves in the Stars and Stripes, which they may well have done at some point. If they haven't, they should probably consider it if their sales start to dip any time in the future. They've released five albums in the States, but are probably only known over here by anyone at all for their cover of Life Is A Highway from the movie Cars. In an attempt to change that, their record company have decided that we deserve our own little Rascal Flatts album, called Rascal Flatts, and featuring the same photo as their most recent proper album, Still Feels Good. It's a compilation of the choice tracks from their albums, with Life Is A Highway thrown in to remind us all where we've heard of these guys before. The first thing you notice from listening to it is that they make The Eagles sound like dangerous outlaw country rockers, because Rascal Flatts are probably the safest and most over-produced band you've heard since the Backstreet Boys, which any hint of an edge viciously smoothed out in the studio. And based on the lyrics alone, there was never going to be much of an edge anyway, with virtually all of the songs being of the lovey-dovey variety with cliches galore and lots of road metaphors. These work fine on songs like Life Is a Highway, which is a fun and engaging pop-rock song, but less well on tepid ballads like their lifeless cover of Bless The Broken Road (originally by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and the problem with Rascal Flatts (the album, and probably the band too) is that there are just too many songs like the latter and too few that get the pulse racing. That's not to say that they're a bad band, because there's plenty of decent songs here, but the overall mixture is just too bland. So, can they make it big over here, or at least to the level of a band like Dixie Chicks? Not on the basis of this...

Tina Dico - Count To Ten

Danish singer Tina Dico's In The Red album was one of the best ones we've reviewed in the last few years, so we were looking forward to receiving this follow-up from her. Having appeared on a few Zero 7 tracks, she's in very much the same boat as Sia, with a decent-sized UK audience for her music without managing to turn that into anything more substantial yet, despite having the Scandinavian good looks and great songs that deserve more attention. There were plenty of tracks on In The Red - most notably Warm Sand - that seemed to have the potential to achieve that, but nothing quite so immediate jumps out at you from Count To Ten. The most obvious-sounding single is probably the title track, which gets the album off to a great start, while On The Run is another very memorable tune, though neither quite have the immediacy and catchiness of Warm Sand. That doesn't mean that the album is a disappointment of course, far from it, and Dico (her real name is Dickow, but was changed for an international audience because of the way we'd pronounce it) is on fine form again. The clear highlight is the beautiful and relective Sacre Coeur, which is well placed at the heart of the album and is probably one of her most fully-realised tunes yet, with wonderful lyrics and gorgeous melodies. Cruel To The Sensitive Kind is another highlight, but all of the songs are strong and Dico's voice sounds fantastic throughout. You can't quite see it being the album to push her into the A-list of female singer-songwriters alongside the likes of Sheryl Crow, but Count To Ten is another very satisfying release from one the most under-rated artists out there.

Deadstring Brothers - Silver Mountain

At the moment, there's a TV show on called The One And Only, where various tribute acts compete for the public vote each week, with the winner getting a run in a tribute act show in Las Vegas. Frank Sinatra's there, plus Britney Spears, Kylie, Robbie Williams, Cher and a bunch of others, and the whole thing is tragic. Because tribute acts are pointless, right? If I want to listen to Frank Sinatra, I'll put on one of his many awesome albums, I'm not going to go to a pub and listen to some guy called Bernard imitating him, no matter how well he does it. Would you go to the cinema to watch a tribute to The Godfather, where a load of blokes from Stockport take the places of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino? So why are tribute acts so popular in music, particularly when they are paying tribute to someone like Kylie or Madonna, who you could just go and watch perform live (admittedly for a lot more money) for real? It's a mystery, but then again originality is not always that important when it comes to music, because there are so many acts out there who do perform their own material but still sound like they could be a tribute to someone else. Take The Deadstring Brothers, who are more like the Rolling Stones of the late 60s/early 70s than the real Stones are these days. Vocalist Kurt Marschke could easily win The One And Only if he were competing as Mick Jagger, and while female vocalist Masha Marjieh makes a bigger bang (pun entirely intended, sorry) here than on their last two records, she doesn't entirely take your mind off the Stones comparisons, even when things take more of a Gram Parsons twist. They mostly hail from Detroit with a few additions from London and Silver Mountain is their latest album, and despite having spent so much of this review badmouthing tribute acts, we don't mean that to reflect on this band or their album. Because Silver Mountain is excellent, from the rocking tracks like Ain't No Hidin' Love and Queen Of The Scene to some of the more mellow country-inflected tracks. They may sound very much like the Stones, but if you think about it, why should that be a problem?
This site copyright © James Ellaby