By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to your weekend retreat from the real world…the best cover song music blog in the universe…a great place to post comments… the Laptop Sessions! I, for one, am really excited for what’s on the horizon here for the music video blog, as the coming week (starting with Jeff tomorrow) is another “New Bands Week.” Basically this is a week when every session — except for Original Wednesday, of course — features a song by a band that we’ve never covered in the history of the blog. I think it’ll be interesting to see what great new music comes to the blog! I actually have one band I plan to do that surprises even me; I’m honestly not sure why I chose this artist, but I’ll figure it out and let you know when I post my video.

Okay, now down to business. Today, I chose “All At Once,” Jack Johnson’s first track on his 2008 album Sleep Through the Static. This is an album that came out early in the year, and it was one of the first that I was really anticipating with excitement. Well, you know what they say about expectations. I don’t know what I expected, but I really wasn’t bowled over by this new release. It was billed as “Jack Johnson goes electric,” but if anything, he got slower and more mellow with the addition of the electricity. The joke circulated, at least among friends, that this more subdued sound wasn’t helped by the fact he recorded the album with natural power. Mike was similarly disappointed in the record, and as a result of our reviews, I believe Jim never even put the disc in his CD player. When he does get to it, I’d be curious to know what he thinks.

So, you may be wondering why I chose to play a song from this album. Well, my favorite playlist on my iTunes is my “New Music from 2008” playlist, so Johnson’s songs have been coming up for months and months, and this one in particular grew on me. I hope you understand — it’s not that the music is bad; far from it, in fact. I love this song. But as an album opener? The other tracks on the album never really get more upbeat and rocking than this one, which is disappointing. After an amazing album like In Between Dreams, I couldn’t help but become one of those fans that expects something. Slowly but surely these songs are growing on me, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy this one (and that I’ve done it justice!).

Well, that’s enough for me for one post. But, before I go, I need to pass on a really interesting tidbit of BnL trivia. Mike just called me today when he couldn’t get in touch with Jim to spread the news… He just learned in class that 9.8 meters per second squared is the rate of gravitational acceleration. It’s a mouthful, right? Well, this finally explains Ed Robertson’s line in the Barenaked Ladies’ song “When I Fall.” He’s talking about being up high and contemplating jumping, and he sings, “It’s 9.8 straight down…” Wow. I can’t believe I never knew what it meant!

Don’t miss another great cover of a new band by Jeff tomorrow, a new acoustic cover by Jim on Monday, then I’ll be back on Tuesday for my first installment in New Bands Week…

See you next session!