Most rock and roll bands go through a certain progression. It’s a little different for each band, but the formula usually holds true, whether or not they want it to. The progression goes like this: dough-eyed optimism, sudden disappointment, bitter jadedness, passing acceptance, wise disregard. Not only do they follow that general path, but it usually shows in their music.
Switchfoot, however, did not follow that pattern. While it seems that all the elements are in place, they are out of order and disproportionate. Switchfoot’s first album, Legend of Chin, definitely has that dough-eyed optimism full force, even if they embed it in wise musings. Well, wise for a 20-year-old, anyway. A few years later, Learning to Breathe did the wise disregard thing. They realized that there was no use making music people would like, so they just did whatever they felt. The result was a pointedly non-pop, marvelously inconsistent album. Then came The Beautiful Letdown on the other end of the spectrum. In a very short period of time, it sky-rocketed them to superstardom, following the passing acceptance phase. It’s easy to see why it appealed to the secular market, since it is very pop. And now, we have Nothing is Sound, and we’re scratching our heads again. This seems to be the sudden disappointment and the bitter jadedness in one.
With this album, I imagine Jon Foreman hanging his head in defeat, at all the drooling music moguls pawing him hungrily. He seems surprised and disgusted at the ways of the secular world he’s been thrust into, but he should be familiar with them by now, 10 years into his career. Nevertheless, Nothing is Sound is a good album, if a bit of a dark one. Indeed, it’s the darkest of their five albums, but it still bears that surfer dude mentality under the surface. Even ten years later, they have not completely lost that optimism they established on their first album. When things get tough, go to the beach.
Songs like “The Blues,” “Happy is a Yuppie Word,” and “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” are steeped in melancholy and passive aggressiveness, bemoaning the problem without presenting a solution. That solution is key to a Christian band, and many have done both things with splendid results (Jars of Clay, Plumb, Lifehouse). “Stars” is an exciting bit of pure rock and roll, while “We Are One Tonight” rings true for anyone who feels that they are not quite up to the task. Switchfoot must not feel that they are up to the task, but they are thankfully forging ahead anyway.
This is a Switchfoot that is battered, bruised and broken, but wanly smiling. They’re strapping on their guitars with aching muscles and screaming joints, grinning through the pain, or perhaps because of it. The question is, how much longer can they go on like this?
Prime Cuts:
We Are One Tonight
Stars
The Blues
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