The world according to Jack
Jack Johnson’s new album gives us a fresh perspective on a tired world, finds Nadine Porter.
It is an album that narrates these strange times we live in. Feeling like an introspective mirror to our souls, Jack Johnson’s eighth album, Meet the Moonlight, resonates with the moment we find ourselves in and the questions a pandemic has inevitably forced us to ask.
A fascinating and beguiling dance that weaves between our reality and the version of reality that communication platforms offer us, Johnson gives us a fresh perspective on a tired world.
And after five years away Johnson has much to say in his gentle way, offering up a hot cup of coffee on a brutally cold day.
At 47, the twice Grammy nominated songwriter’s music probes, but never seeks to deliver an answer. Instead, it allows the listener to draw their own conclusions.
‘‘There’s not always that nice clean solution for what to do next if you want a perfect relationship or more peace of mind,’’ Johnson says. ‘‘Sometimes it’s just pointing out everything that gets in the way of that.’’
It’s been a while since Johnson has had to disseminate his songs to media, although he acknowledges each album reads like a diary of his life. From his years of flatting to the emergence of love and his experience as a father of teenage children, Johnson has never shied away from letting us view his world.
But this album goes further in taking stock of what he terms as our infantile position in a world that is rapidly changing, as technology reshapes the way in which we communicate.
‘‘In a lot of ways we are our same old selves but in a whole new surrounding.’’
Johnson first picked up a guitar when he was 8, began songwriting when he was 12 and soon became known for his soft acoustic ‘‘surfer rock’’ – in part because of his background as a surfer’s son and his own short-lived professional surfing career in Hawaii.
By 2001, Johnson had become a household name after the release of his debut album Brushfire Fairytales, which hit the top of the album charts in New Zealand.
And his new album tastes as fresh as his first offering. First single One Step Ahead explores how toxic communication was amplified, according to Johnson, through the silence of lockdowns and our own household bubbles.
‘‘When it feels like it’s all closing in, all the lines we won’t cross, we’ll bend instead,’’ Johnson croons. ‘‘Never mind all the noise going through your head.’’
Standout track 3AM Radio is also very of its time, and references Johnson’s car trips through the night with his family in northern California.
Fuelled on coffee while his family slept, Johnson would listen to radio in the early hours of the morning – the ‘‘broken hearts and white noise, busted souls, bloody noses’’.
He rails against being controlled by a negative narrative as the misinformation age rolls on: ‘‘Well you heard it once, and then maybe twice, under someone’s breath as they walked by. But you don’t buy that big old bag of lies, you’ve been adding up negative signs.’’
In title track Meet The Moonlight, Johnson presents sweetly languid rhythms and a mantralike vocal delivery.
Described as a lovely respite from the outside world Johnson shares another gentle reminder for living well. ‘‘Whenever I walk outside at night and look up at the stars,’’ he sings, ‘‘it’s always a way to be present instead of worrying about the future or dwelling on the past.’’
Produced by Blake Mills and engineered by Joseph Lorge in Los Angeles and Hawaii the album soars in exposing Johnson’s on point maturing songwriting talent and points us all towards the light in uncertain times.
In an artist biography, Johnson quotes US writer Joseph Campbell, succinctly summing up his particular take on life in middle age.
‘‘Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.’’
When it seems like there may not be a great outcome in the future, how do you wake up each day and bring as much joy into the world as you can, he asks.
For Johnson and his wife Kim that desire to give joy has led them to create the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation and the Kō kua Hawaii Foundation where they have contributed proceeds from tours and an album to help greening charities.
Although the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation is a non-profit organisation that focuses on environmental, arts and music education, it raised more than US$750,000 from 2009 to 2010 to give away.
Thrilled to be playing two shows in Aotearoa in December after five years away, Johnson is equally excited about spending time with his family in a country he readily admits he loves.
And he’s looking forward to gifting his latest songs to fans on stage. ‘‘Once I put them into the world they are for everybody.’’
‘‘In a lot of ways we are our same old selves but in a whole new surrounding.’’
Jack Johnson, above