Switchfoot - Nothing is Sound
Nothing Is Sound finds Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman ruminating deeper into the question of "have we lost ourselves?"
After Nirvana's runaway success set forth a massive boon for much of the 1990's, major label rock hit a Kennedy Expressway-vintage pothole towards the turn of the millennium, and has spent the interim duct-taping it's gaping holes with old post-grunge standbys while they wait for the next big rock thing to come knocking at their front door. Filling their sales void in the meantime has been a mind-numbingly repetitive series of derivative bling-hoppers, boy bands masquerading as innocuous guitar-pop groups, and generally those advantageous enough to cash in on the otherwise borderless land of mediocrity that is the CHR format. Come on, someone even thought that the world was primed and ready for a Backstreet Boys comeback. Despite this, there are a few people that still think we haven't run out of ideas. Imagine that.
Whether the concept of "mainstream rock" was really a viable commercial venture or not is still wide open for debate, being that the reception for everyone outside of Nirvana and the underlings that sprung up in their wake was decidedly lukewarm. To a certain degree, rock has always been the music industry's little sister of the poor, always grasping onto the coattails of the moneymaking pop stars, as much as the numerous denizens of Linkin Park and Good Charlotte might protest such a stiff evaluation. Nonetheless, rock chugs on, the third wheel in a profitable duet. Fret not, though, there is hope.
Enter alternative CCM expatriates Switchfoot into the fray, a scrappy San Diego quintet who, after three indie releases, have fully embraced all the sonic benefits of a big-label budget while still sounding ever so determined to get answers to life's big head-scratchers. While their chord-driven, spit-polished rock sound did little at first to break them from the pack, their well-worn style was spiked with an earthly awareness, a generation-specific consciousness that went beyond their compatriots' tired tales of angst, confusion, frustration and the occasional romantic entanglement. Nothing Is Sound, their second major-label effort, amps up the production values even more, but their common themes stay in focus. The noisy edge of first single "Stars" is no aberration; this album pulls no punches, nor should it.
Nothing Is Sound finds Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman ruminating deeper into the question of "have we lost ourselves?," from the band's breakthrough hit "Meant To Live" two years ago. Judging by the end result, one is more inclined to believe that Foreman (and brother Tim, who co-pens three songs) thinks we have indeed slipped a few rungs. The brothers Foreman tackle personal responsibility in "Lonely Nation" ("We are the target market / We set the corporate target / We are slaves of what we want / We're just numb and amused and we're used to bad news"), the pursuit of an unattainable, undefined satisfaction in "Happy Is A Yuppie Word," and the wanton pervasiveness of sex as a cheap manipulator in "Easier Than Love" ("War and love become pedantic, we wage love with a mistletoe / Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone"). There is some anger and exasperation bubbling beneath the surface, but they're tempered by a sense of the bigger picture, that things can be put right with a little risk and forward thinking. That's where the album succeeds in spades, in spite of its huge, vintage-era U2-level intentions.
While the album is far from perfect ("Lonely Nation" finds them creeping perilously close to P.O.D. territory, while the self-empowerment anthem "Golden" feels a tad too precious on the surface), Nothing Is Sound is still a breath of fresh air in a rock world that's been taking in stale, recirculated concepts for longer than they've had any right to. Sure, it makes no apologies for being a shiny, major league rock record, but if you can get past that and the sheer hugeness of the whole thing, the bounty here is plentiful. There's enough keen, timely observations to keep the sellout hawks at bay, and the big, hooky riffs abound more so than at any other point in Switchfoot's career. The big label blues haven't hit these guys quite yet; they sound right at home as well as comfortable in their own skin.
(Columbia Records)
(NOTE:Nothing Is Sound is available in both traditional audio-only and Dualdisc formats. Both, however, limit how and when the albums can be copied to both CD-R and digital music files. Through the album's Digital Rights Management license, users are limited to three copies of the album to disc, and can only copy them digitally to Windows Media [WMA] or the Sony-exclusive ATRAC formats. Backups and digital rips can only be made using the provided proprietary software; no third-party ripping programs can be utilized. This is bound to drive MP3 loyalists and audiophiles crazy, but that's the price we pay in a reactive culture.)