Jack Johnson : Semi-guilty pleasure

I used to be a music elitist, and I still hold onto a lot of those tendencies. To be honest, I'd rather the first review be of some obscure band from some obscure country that nobody has ever heard of, but I'm trying not to be a pretentious musical bastard anymore. So instead I'll review something that I've been listening to a lot at work.

A good work CD needs to be light and airy enough to play in the background, and lively enough to add a bit of joy or fun to the atmosphere. Unfortunately that rules out a lot of the stuff I usually listen to. But Jack Johnson's music fills that role admirably.

Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies... has some nice, upbeat songs that work well, such as "Upside Down" and "People Watching" but really seems to hit stride with "Jungle Gym." This is followed by a nice, somewhat sentimental cover of "We're Going To Be Friends".

My personal favorite is "The Sharing Song". It just sounds like something from an old SchoolHouse Rock. It's got the fun, impromptu feel of a group of friends just hanging out and singing together. It's not too polished, and it segues nicely into a version of "The 3 R's" that uses a chunk of "Three is a Magic Number."

I've been listening to Jack Johnson for a bit now, and was very worried when I saw that his next album would be a soundtrack -- especially to Curious George. But this is one of those projects that's more than a soundtrack. It stands on it's own, and is a fun listen.

I know that I now have zero indie cred, but oh well...