As poet-musician Michael Franti's seventh studio album with Spearhead, The Sound of Sunshine certainly isn’t his strongest release. An uptempo, 11-track affair, this seldom rises above the group’s basic dance mix — it employs Franti’s cornerstones of hip hop, folk and reggae — and shows little of the vocal shading or energy that Franti's demonstrated on previous releases.
Franti wrote (or co-wrote) everything on this album and its strongest tracks occur in its middle and final chapters. Its title track is, ironically, not as strong as the CD ender “The Sound of Sunshine Going Down.” Franti's skills are shown to best advantage on the “Hey Hey Hey, I'll Be Waiting,” “Only Thing Missing is You” and the excellent “Headphones.” Unfortunately, though, The Sound of Sunshine never goes above and beyond its free-spirited title: This is just a very, very pop album, and that’s not always a good thing.
Post the first comment: (Login or Register)