“All the Light Above It Too,” Jack Johnson’s seventh studio album, is exactly what we’ve come to expect from him. That laid-back, easygoing voice set over a mellow guitar riff and an occasional maraca are all there, but this time it wasn’t enough to grab my attention, much less keep it.
The songs mostly sound the same and rarely deviate from his signature singer-songwriter sound, almost making it feel like you’ve got the same song on repeat by the time you get halfway through the album. However, there is one exception near the end, in “Gather,” which incorporates conga drums and a funky baseline into an eclectic arrangement that leaves the listener wondering why there isn’t more of this on the record.
Don’t let his soothing guitar style trick you though — Johnson had something to say with this album. From the opener “Subplots,” he shows a contrast between his relaxing guitar and charged lyrics as he calls out our society’s self-absorption, saying, “All the light under the sun / All the light above it too / It don’t shine for you.”
A few songs later in “My Mind Is for Sale,” a politically-driven outcry, he unmistakably calls out Donald Trump saying, “I don’t care for your paranoid ‘us against them’ walls.” This serves as evidence that he’s moved past his days of singing about banana pancakes.
Of course, it couldn’t really be considered a Jack Johnson album if there wasn’t at least one love song. “Love Song #16” puts Johnson’s poetic ability on display, and he almost makes it look too easy.
