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Album Details

• Artist: Johan
• Album: Thx Jhn
• Label: Excelsior
• Year of Release: 2006
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: kev_stev on 2007-10-04

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Beginning with a melody that screams Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye,” Johan had some great expectations to live up to on THX JHN, the band’s third studio album.  In a way Johan does come through, making an album full of easy-listening melodies and sing-along pop anthems, where almost every song off of the album could be heard on your favorite Top 40 radio station.  “Oceans,” the second song off of THX JHN, best epitomizes Johan’s overall sound and pop sensibilities.  It is a quaint love song that plays smoothly as it builds up to its catchy chorus, where lead singer Jacob De Greeuw sings, “If you need me then I will cross the ocean, tides will bring me to the ocean shore,” only to question, with a slightly higher tone of urgency, “Do you want me?”  “She’s Got A Way with Men” follows this pattern as well, honing the band’s electric sound with dominant, slick guitar riffs which lead the song to its focal point: its chorus.

However, despite the poppy anthems off of the album, THX JHN does get muddled in monotony when trying to exact melancholic sentiments. “Walking Away,” for instance, is very slow-moving, and retards the pace of the album.  Likewise, the album’s fifth track, “Reader Takes a Stand,” lags from monotony despite its crescendo of “na, na, nas.”  The best songs on the album are the folksy, pop gems where the band has a dominant electric sound, can explore stringed instruments, and create memorable choruses.

Things come to fruition on the album’s seventh track, “When I’m on My Own,” where the blending of guitar, piano, and drums makes for the most original, catchy, and at times brilliant sound on the entire album, allowing Greeuw’s voice to be emphasized over the various instrumentations playing.  However, there are times on this song, and the album in general, when the music becomes dangerously flat; passion is sometimes blatantly lacking, leaving what seems like a void in the songs.  Though THX JHN is not a failed attempt at making decent music, it does lack the essentials to create a lasting album, something that Johan has the potential to do once it fills in some of its voids: eliminating monotony and adding the ardency its music should contain.

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