Oh! Switchfoot.

Switchfoot is one of those bands that has continually amazed me. After I saw them live in Steubenville and really got into The Beautiful Letdown, I have loved every single one of their CDs. The old ones are just as good as the more recent ones and Oh! Gravity. is no different.

On my first listening I was sort of confused by the album, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. It's probably the most different of all of their albums: there are some more punk-sounding songs alongside fun, poppy tracks. It such a mix that you can't help but find something you like on it.

Musically, I think it's their best work. The drumming has never sounded better. Also, the album artwork is really cool. That counts for something.

Here's the rundown:

1. "Oh! Gravity." - Good opening rock track. "Why can't we seem to keep it together?" says it all.
2. "American Dream" - Awesome song commenting on American materialism. "I want out of this machine, It doesn't feel like freedom/ This ain't my American dream, I want to live and die for bigger things." By the way, my copy of the CD came with a code that allowed me to download an acoustic version of this track off of Switchfoot's website.
3. "Dirty Second Hands" - Probably the strangest song on the album ... I'm not sure how to describe it. It reminds me a little of Led Zeppelin sometimes, but then doesn't sound anything like them. I think it's the hardest track on the CD, a little strange, but it grows on you.
4. "Awakening" - Catchy pop-punk song with a good chorus.
5. "Circles" - This one reminds me of some of their older stuff, but with a darker mood. To me, it's a song about everybody's existential crisis: "Am I alive? Am I on purpose? ... I've lost all that I wanted to leave, I've lost all that I wanted to be, Don't believe that there's nothing that's true, Don't believe in this modern machine!"
6. "Amateur Lovers" - God is the only one who really knows how to love. I like the whole song except for the bit at the end where lead singer, Jon Foreman, starts yelling "P-p-p-p-p-professional." It's a little weird. Still a good song though.
7. "Faust, Midas, and Myself" - A very cool "story song." I love this part: "What direction? Death or action! Life begins at the intersection."
8. "Head Over Heels (In This Life)" - Probably my least favorite song on the album, but it still rocks pretty hard. It has it's high points and I really like the chorus, I just can't stand the line, "You're everything that's fair in love and war." I'm listening to it right now and the words really strike me as really a really sincere prayer ... so make up your own mind.
9. "Yesterdays" - A heartfelt song apparently about a friend who died. Very good lyrics.
10. "Burn Out Bright" - Some awesome lyrics (that I'll probably post later) about never giving up. It sounds like it would be a good song to hear live (or even better, to play live).
11. "4:12" - One of my favorite tracks on the CD. I love pretty much everything about the song: the cool bass part and beat, the lyrics, and especially the kind of strange outro where they yell: "Souls aren't built of stone, sticks and bones ..." I can really identify with the idea of the song. Sometimes we "begin to believe that all [we] are is material" and then we realize what life is really about. What a fun song.
12. Let Your Love Be Strong - A sort of lament for a dying world while still maintaining the hope of what it means to be a Christian: "Let your love be strong, and I don't care what goes down, Let your love be strong enough to weather through the thunder cloud, Fury and thunder clap like stealing the fire from your eyes, All of my world hanging on your love."
13. Bonus Track: "The Shadow Proves The Sunshine" Remix - Cool redone version of an awesome song from their last album.

Overall, the CD is great. Like much of their music, most of the lyrics aren't explicitly Christian. I think the take the more difficult (and more artistic) way by writing good, thoughtful lyrics that point you towards the answer to all of the questions they ask in their songs: God.