Donavon Frankenreiter's self-titled debut album is one of those albums that I didn't even have to hear to buy. I saw the "Brushfire Records" logo and a guest appearance by Jack Johnson, and I figured it was some good Hawaiian surfer music. Frankenreiter actually isn't from Hawai'i, but rather Southern California. He is, however, a professional surfer, just like my main man. My main man also produced this album, which explains the very strong influence. A lot of the songs on the collection sound remarkably similar to something Jack may have done.... no complaints here. Anyway, let's get on to the songs.

Track Listing:
1. It Don't Matter (5 stars)
2. Free (4.5 stars)
3. On My Mind (4.5 stars)
4. Our Love (4 stars)
5. What'cha Know About (5 stars)
6. Butterfly (3 stars)
7. Bend in the Road (4.5 stars)
8. Day Dreamer (3 stars)
9. Make You Mine (4 stars)
10. Call Me Papa (4 stars)
11. Heading Home (4 stars)
12. So Far Away (4 stars)
13. Swing On Down (4 stars)

Total - 53.5/65 - 82.3%

The album starts off memorably with It Don't Matter. This is a beautiful love song towards his wife or daughter, which is something you'll see quite a bit more on this album. It's similar to Jack's In Between Dreams in the aspect that most of the songs focus on relationships. Musically, this song is amazing. It's got a bouncy feel to it, held intact by the acoustic guitar and light bass. There's also some excellent electric guitar layered of the other instruments. It's absolutely sublime. This is really Hawaiian surfer music at it's finest (If you don't get that, go read my Curious George ST review). Lyrically, Donavon speaks some very nice lyrics. Unfortunately... Frankenreiter doesn't really compare to Johnson lyrically, but that's okay. I wouldn't really want anyone else to be as good as Jack. Anyway, take a peek at the lyrics anyway:

People all around making sounds
And all kinds of noise
If I could only get there then I could enjoy
Who they trying to be who they trying to fool
Lets change the mood right now
Turn down the lights its time to cool it down
If it don't matter to you
It don't matter to me

The next track, Free, actually features Jack Johnson himself. It starts out with Jack on ukelele, and then kicks into a full band performance. Like most of the material on this album, it's happy, bouncy, fun and.... free. Free is actually an excellent word to describe this music. Jack sings a verse himself, and him and Donavon team up for the chorus, as well. They trade lines in the third verse, and it's a very magical performance. I love to hear these two sing together. Lyrically, this one is damn good. They are, once again, about a loved one, but the excellent references to certain things make this a memorable lyrical passage.

The beautiful On My Mind is next. This is undoubtedly a homage to his wife, declared that she's on his mind. Even though I can't see her all the time, I gotta let you know you're on my mind Frankenreiter says. These lyrics are excellent, as is the music. It's a bit slower than the previous two tracks, and is carried more heavily by the acoustic guitar than the full band. There are also some breathtakingly beautiful electric piano lines over it all. Great love song.

Our Love is the next installment in the series of love songs, but this is much different than the last track. It starts out with some country-inspired guitar, and this makes for a much more upbeat and fast song than the last. The electric piano once again shows up, but this performance pales in comparison to the last track. The lyrics are fairly good as well. He pulls some guitar lines out of Jack Johnson's musical bag of tricks when he plays and sings the melody at the same time. Do You Remember? I really hope everyone got that last line.

G.Love makes an [un]expected guest appearance on the incredibly catchy and infectious What'cha Know About. This song has a classic guitar line that mimics the sung melody at times. This whole track is high-energy and the instrumentation is excellent. There's no outstanding instrumental performances, but as a full band, this music really gets the job done. G.Love also adds to the track with his skillful harmonica playing. This track does stand out from the first four for one large reason: it's about bad love. Every song up to this point had been a song dedicated to a loved one, but Donavon speaks out getting hurt one this track. Very strange change, considering the way the album is going and will go. Still, the lyrics are some of the best on the album:

I guess you know about leaving
Loving and leaving me
You left me for no reason
But you lead me to believe //
Sometimes your life can crumble
Sometimes you soul might make you stumble
But you cant drowned in your sorrow
Because you might be found, might be found tomorrow //
What'cha know about living
When you be treated like a queen
But a queen don't know about giving
I aint looking to receive

Butterfly and Day Dreamer are two of the most unstimulating songs on the album. They have opposite feeling, composition and subject matter, but are mediocre in every category. Butterfly is another love song, Day Dreamer is about dreaming. The music, especially on the former, is unexciting and nothing special. Lyrically, they aren't good examples of Frankenreiter's skill.

Luckily, Bend in the Road splits these two songs up on the album. This song is a heartfelt apology to a loved one. The music is soft and somber, making a perfect fit for the lyrics. The keys are excellent, once again, which seems to be a theme on this album. Donavon asks "What went wrong?" and wonders if they can make it better. This is really a beautiful song. Full of emotion. This deserves many listens.

The surprisingly low-key Make You Mine is another solid track. It has fairly standard composition when you take a look at the whole album, but gains major points for the conga work in the middle of the song. Whoever's playing really busts out in between the chorus and the fill, which I dig. The lyrics in the song are.... yes, once again, about a lover. Is it getting old? Slightly.

Call Me Papa is another love song. This song, however, is blatantly about his daughter, whereas most of the material here is about his wife. The lyrics are very sweet: When you close your eyes and you drift to sleep, from time to time I hope you're running to me, thinking of you, I hope you see me too. It starts out with just acoustic guitar, and the rest of the song has excellent instrumentation. Soft drums with some stunning work on the keys really make this song memorable. There's also some backing vocals which is interesting to see, since it's the first time I've heard them on the album.

The bounciness returns on the immensely upbeat Heading Home. Donavon takes a jab at commercialism and materialism with his lyrics, saying: You said it's the latest and the greatest but I know that it's not, trying to be somebody you don't want to be, didn't even exist last year, but now it's what you need, oh no not me. I love it. Great, funky acoustic guitar with excellent keys (again!) make this an an enjoyable listen. It's too short, however, to be outstanding.

Donavon gets soft and sweet on the next two tracks So Far Away and Swing On Down. In my opinion, these slow songs do something great for Donavon: they seperate him from Jack Johnson. While Donavon's more upbeat songs sound almost identical to Jack's, his slow songs have a different sound to them. So Far Away is another excellent song. It's got some interesting electrical guitar in it, which adds a cool sound to this light song. The lyrics are memorable as well, with this breathtaking line: Even though I can hear your voice, you know that touch is my choice. This subject matter of this song brings back memories of Johnson's Tomorrow Morning from On and On. The next track, Swing On Down is almost completely acoustic. You never hear anything but Donavon's guitar taking care of the the backing track. It's a great effort and very effective. The lyrics are minimal and anything but groundbreaking, but the "swing on down, swing on down to me" gets me everytime for reasons unknown. These last two tracks are a solid way to end the album, but far from classic status.

Overall, this is definitely a solid effort for a debut album. But if musical history has told us anything, that it's the debut is usually the best, and that's not a good thing for Frankenreiter. This is definitely a good album, but not good enought to solidify him as a worthy artist for years to come. Comparisons to Jack Johnson can only take one so far. The more and more I listen to this album the more the Jack Johnson-esque feel bothers me -- I hope his new album (which comes out less than a month after the posting of this) will show Donavon changing his style a bit and making it more of his own. If he can do that, coupled with the songwriting and lyrical skills that I know he has, he can drop an incredible album. Until then, I'll definitely keep listening to this one.

4 stars



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving