To The Sea ~ A Mojo Music Review

Music is a big part of my life, and a big part of my art. Music fuels me when nothing else will..when I think I'm too tired, when I think I have nothing in me to put on the table (the worktable, that is). Even if I'm not listening to anything while I work...I'm probably singing something or at least hearing the constant playback in my head. ;) Music, to large degree, IS my mojo.

So it only follows that I do music reviews. I'm always getting new or new-to-me music...might as well share it!

Jack Johnson's newest album To The Sea came out on Tuesday. I am shocked and amazed that it took me til today to download it, since I am a devoted Jack Johnson fan. I just finished my first listen to the entire playlist and.....

Well. Y'know... there's really only one legitimate criticism that could be leveled at Jack Johnson's music over the years. I've heard it, you've probably heard it "It all sounds the same". Which, if you're a fan, isn't really a problem. Jack Johnson's laid-back, groovitational, surfer-dude, put-me-in-a-hammock-and-pass-me-a-margarita mellowness is exactly why Jack is Jack. It's what we love about him.

But you cannot say that about To The Sea. It's still Jack. It's still groovy. But it's Jack with....more. It's so exciting to see, or in this case, hear an artist's growth. The songs on To The Sea are rich with funky rhythms, stylistic change-ups, meaningful lyrics, and a sense of drive and excitement that I personally just didn't feel on Sleep Through The Static, though I do like that album. (I like ALL his albums) You can really hear and feel that Jack and the other great musicians (Zach Gill is the bomb-diggety, yo) are having FUN doing that groovy thing they do.

Every song is strong. I don't think I can even pick a favorite. But I know I fell in love with You and Your Heart within the first two bars. My Little Girl is a father-daughter song to rival Paul Simon's Father & Daughter. And I was grinning ear to ear when I recognized the familiar sounds of ALO on Red Wine, Mistakes, and Mythology.

I made several outstanding cuffs while listening to this. It totally rocks. I give a Monster Mojo rating for extreme awesomeness. Suitable for all kinds of positive creation and a general good-time. Kids. Try this At Home.

Motionless Music

It's still so strange to me to call myself an artist. When I was growing up, my visual arts skills were...well, practically non-existent. Even when I was an adult and first took up rubber-stamping, my own parents said my cards looked like a 3rd grader made them. And not a talented one, mind you. O_O But music... now I have always been into music. I sing, I play percussion, and I'm learning the drums. Music is, and always has been, the primary force which drives me. I call my iPod "my Ritalin", though it's my Prozac as well. Not to mention my meth, my ambien, and whatever other drug I need it to be. Music makes me move. But music can also make me mutely motionless.

"Despite its connection to dance, music is nonetheless the emblem of immobility, for when it is really great it seizes time and holds it still in an invisible grip." ~Mark Helprin

I wrote a few days ago how I create out of joy, not pain. Similarly, I create out of motion - frenetic motion - rather than stillness. I tend to pick music that keeps me at a certain sustained hum of mirthful activity...like a cute and stingless bee. And most of the time when I see artists talking about music for the studio..it's about music that makes them go. But it's good to stop and be still sometimes. And it's good to let the music hold you breathless while you feel parts of yourself you might have forgotten. Opening some of those closed places and letting in some air and sunshine. Like spring cleaning for the soul.

One piece that stops me in my tracks with its yearning loveliness is the Adagio from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major. How about you? What music makes you still?