Navigating the gamut of life’s complex emotions, cinematic folk artist Common Jack (John Gardner) has released his latest album, It Would Be Enough, today, November 14th, 2025. With encouragement and inspiration from fellow artists rooting the project, the album studies the gray spaces between bitterness and self-awareness.
A characteristic of Common Jack’s music is the bubbly road-trip-like feel to it, and that’s what the track “Keep it Easy” offers. The song expands upon giving out promises and putting them in the air to come to fruition. There is a constant reminder of freedom, and if it blooms further or hinders that freedom.
Nothing is more of the title “Keep it Easy” than swimming in NYC rivers, as seen in the music video for the song. True to its theme, the removal of the busy streets of the city reinforces the breathing room that the song desires.
The following track, “Your Side of the Bed,” rhythmically is in a state of romantic reminiscing and relapsing. The notable piano line continues and repeats throughout the song until the end, where it wraps things up. The lyrics mention lucid dreams and the state where the influx of memories overloads one’s mind. It’s a melodic, dreamy makes-you-sway number with the added bonus of a horn section, and a catchy chorus in “Your side of the bed / Is still warm.”
Maintaining the driving melodic indie pop groove is his September single, “On My Mind,” sounding like a reflection during a late-night drive or the middle of an overnight flight, where air travel plays a role in the song. The lyrics play on this vibe when bringing up the miles between the two. The track highlights abandonment in both the short-term and long-term as the song advances. The storytelling in the song is the highlight, with the notion of quitting a job — or anything — for someone you care deeply for. The lush scenery away from the big city and endearing vignettes in the music video complements “On My Mind” musically and thematically.
As a song for a fallout, “To Live is to Lose,” has a bittersweet melody that’s longing for something that is already lost. Comparing the parallels of the loss of a relationship with a scene of a funeral service hits home, and is something each and every listener can and will relate to.
The project in its entirety portrays the story of a relationship (whether it happened or is the figment of the imagination) that slowly fades under multiple circumstances, which becomes regret. This, combined with his soaring falsetto, makes It Would Be Enough a haunting ache, yet often with uplifting and engaging instrumentation.
The album was born during a two-and-a-half year world tour with the Tony Award-winning Broadway show Once, when a backstage conversation with Glen Hansard at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles inspired Gardner to record the songs he’d been writing for years.
Common Jack has his album release party at Sleepwalk in Brooklyn on November 17th.
