On Tuesday, new releases from Jack Johnson, Hot Chip and Nada Surf hit stores. Here’s a look at each.
Jack Johnson, “Sleep Through the Static,” (Brushfire Records)
Jack Johnson has always seemed a bit world weary, though until now, he’s done a better job of hiding it.
The laid back surfer’s past albums landed hits with “Bubble Toes” and “Banana Pancakes,” poppy acoustic numbers. Those fluffy songs outshone glum material about heartless newscasters, looming breakdowns and hypocritical wars for peace.
On “Sleep Through the Static,” however, Johnson melds his darker views to his most radio-friendly moments: The title track itself is a reference to Iraq.
Here, he replaces tales of breakfast with songs like “Hope,” a deceptively light piano number. The song begins with harmonic cooing, only to find Johnson singing, “You better hope you’re not alone.”
And for the lovelorn song “If I Had Eyes,” the hiccup of a clean electric guitar and some goofy lyrics almost distract you from a chorus about how “time doesn’t heal, no, not at all.”
Granted, the darker cast doesn’t blot out Johnson’s trademark sound, a pleasing mix of campfire guitar, blues and pop. While the album’s a bit front-loaded — the second half drags — “Sleep Through the Static” continues his winning streak.
Hot Chip, “Made in the Dark,” (Astralwerks)
Hot Chip? More like hot damn.
This quintet, releasing its third album, “Made in the Dark,” have pulled off that elusive task: Making solid pop music firmly grounded in electronica.
The group drew attention when its last album, “The Warning,” was nominated for the Nationwide Mercury Prize, an award championing British and Irish musicians; past nominees include Coldplay, Amy Winehouse and Franz Ferdinand.
Now, Hot Chip has a shot at expanding a growing fan base with tracks like “Ready for the Floor,” a sticky bit of electronic pop that sounds like a souped-up Postal Service song.
Each listen of this layered album reveals something new. “Wrestlers,” a mellow song, winds itself around Beck-like lyrics: “Here we come, drop kick, half nelson, full nelson, Willie Nelson.”
And “One Pure Thought” opens with muscular guitar before lapsing into a techno beat. As Alexis Taylor repeats the phrase “I won’t be on my way,” the words sound like an African chant.
Almost all of this works ridiculously well, and Taylor deserves a lot of the credit. His vocals sound as well-suited to a coffee shop as they do to a dance floor — or, to put it another way, he’s got a sound that could please multitudes.
Nada Surf, “Lucky,” (Barsuk Records)
Some people still think of Nada Surf as the band that sang “Popular,” a satiric anthem from the Late Grunge-Early Emo era, the mid 1990s, that is. Those people are chumps.
The group has been crafting fine-grained indie rock for more than a decade since that single hit the charts, honing a sound in the Death Cab for Cutie vein: introspective and uplifting.
With its latest release, “Lucky,” the group probably won’t win over too many new fans but should please its loyal following.
Songs like “See These Bones” and “I Like What You Say” soar thanks to well-deployed harmonies. And lighter fare — the midtempo acoustic pop of “Here Goes Something,” the reliably structured rock of “Whose Authority” — feel readymade for an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” not necessarily a bad thing.
Still, the group has its misfires. “The Fox” is a burdensome and meandering track that should have been cut, and “The Film Did Not Go ‘Round,” an acoustic weeper, bares a strong resemblance — a little too strong — to Emitt Rhodes’ “Lullaby.”
But ultimately, this is a sun-streaked album from a band that never should have been labeled a one-hit wonder.
Herald columnist Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@heraldnet.com.
Listen up
To hear Andy’s favorite tracks from the new Jack Johnson, Hot Chip and Nada Surf albums, visit www.heraldnet.com/popsecrets.
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