Jack Johnson

“Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George” (Universal)

Compare to: Ben Harper, John Mayer

REVIEW: 4 / 5

In short: Johnson lives up to his reputation with this tantalizingly quirky disk. Johnson fans will likely gobble this up like free cheesecake.

Jack Johnson is the king of easy listening, and judging from this new release, he isn’t about to be dethroned any time soon.

“Sing-A-Longs” is more upbeat than past efforts and is possibly the happiest album since “Kidz Bop 4.”

Simply put, this music just makes you want to smile. I’ll admit I was in a pretty crappy mood when I turned on the disc for a first listen, but I couldn’t help but perk up after listening to this overwhelmingly juvenile and peppy bunch of songs.

Johnson was originally asked to write songs that would be the voice of Curious George, everybody’s favorite nonspeaking monkey, in his upcoming feature film.

After turning it into this soundtrack/full-length album, it’s safe to say that nobody could have done a better job with the task.

The lyrics of the songs are far from Johnson’s typical, incorporation of singing children and childish themes such as “The Sharing Song,” turning otherwise obnoxious subject matter into tunes that are guaranteed to stick in your head.

A cover of the White Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends” is one of the best tracks on the album. “The 3 R’s,” a sing-along repeating “reduce, reuse and recycle” and is chockfull of clever phrases.

This album would make a great addition to any record collection – even one belonging to a monkey-hating metalhead.

-Dan McClanahan