Switchfoot - Nothing Is Sound (Japan Edition) (2005)

With over two million copies sold of their 2003 breakthrough Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot have finally found the universal audience they've been searching for since 1999's New Way to Be Human. Their CCM inspirations had always been more curious than self-righteous "We're all in this together, Jonathan Foremanwould sing in his lyrics, "so let's figure out what it all means" and on Letdown, those impulses meshed ably with slick post-grunge guitars and the production of John Fields. It's the same formula on Nothing Is Sound, Switchfoot's 2005 effective, but too calculated follow-up. Fields is back in the producer's seat, and Foreman is still striving to separate honesty from commodities and find a place for his soul to stand up straight. On songs like "Blues," "Shadow Proves the Sunshine," and "Happy Is a Yuppie Word" his vocals mix Bono's plaintive wail with the laconic surfer drawl of fellow Southern Californian Mark McGrath. He conveys his passion for key topics like life, death, sex, and redemption. But Foreman's also careful not to lose that laid-back edge, so we know there's still an easygoing beach kid under that washed-out blonde mane. Together with Foreman, Switchfoot succeeds incredibly well with this meaningful innocuousness. Vestiges of Nirvana remain in their melodic crunch, but there's no teeth, and nothing threatening. Instead the wrangled yells and lurching notes of "Politicians," "Lonely Nation," and "Easier Than Love" are balanced by hopeful verses, tinkling programming, and layers of airy reverb. With Nothing Is Sound Switchfoot have realized that with universal success comes being all things to all people. So they're prayerful "Please Lord don't look the other way...Shine on me," goes "Shadow Proves the Sunshine" but they're also just plain likeable, giving "We Are One Tonight" the easygoing flair of the Gin Blossoms. Foreman probes the big issues with a personal touch, his band keeps the beat steady and true, and it sounds like nothing and everything at the very same time. ~ johnny loftus, allmusic.com

Although it wasn't until the release of The Beautiful Letdown over two years ago that the band exploded into the mainstream, Switchfoot has been making quality alternative rock for over eight years. Now with a few successful radio singles and a multi-platinum record under their belt, the San Diego trio-turned-quintet returns with Nothing Is Sound. The spotlight heat is on the guys hotter than ever as their Christian fans wonder if the band has sold out, while mainstream fans just want another batch of hit singles. Stacks of questions have been proposed and Nothing Is Sound is the answer. This album is everything one can come to expect from Switchfoot with a major label release. The production has been significantly upped, leaving each song more lush and full than any recording the band's done previously, without compromising the song's raw energy. The band began in '95 as just Jon Foreman as lead singer and chief songwriter, his brother Tim and their friend Chad Butler, and released three records on Sparrow Records together. The Switchfoot musical format was a healthy blend of poetic songwriting, alternative rock, and just a dusting of subtle spirituality. Foreman's songwriting has always been sort of a social commentary or reflection on personal experiences. The band has never been known as one that has an especially evangelistic message. So when the listener looks into the "everything is meaningless" messages that Nothing Is Sound adopts, finding the word "Lord" as the only potential reference to our Jesus (used thrice in one song), there really shouldn't be any surprise. The band's debut The Legend Of Chin possessed a similar subtlety. But where Nothing Is Sound lacks in direct spiritual and Christian message, it makes up with hopeful or relevant writing. Songs like the hooky first single "Stars" point out the problems with being self-centered and the implication of something greater beyond ourselves. "Easier Than Love" is a beautifully blunt attack on the world's view on sex and love, declaring the obvious reason that "sex sells" in the media is because sex is easier than the more difficult and seemingly impossible "love." The catchy rock song opens with bold verses like "Sex is currency / She sells cars, she sells magazines / Addictive, bittersweet, clap your hands / with the hopeless nicotines..." It's songs like this that offer a message mainstream listeners seldom hear and probably doesn't even know what to do with. It's refreshing to say the least. Ferociously catchy songs like "Lonely Nation," "Stars," and the Bob Dylan-inspired "Happy Is A Yuppie Word" drip with emotion and passion, all the while capturing a fine sense of the band's engaging live performances. The album is sensitive and desperate, while offering glimmers of light at the same time. "The Shadow Proves The Sunshine" is a rock ballad inspired by a fact-finding trip Switchfoot took to South Africa earlier this year to see for themselves what poverty and disease was doing to the country. "The Blues," which Foreman penned on New Years Day 2004, is a song about finding beauty in the world ending and resonates with the pretty laments of songs like "Let That Be Enough" from the band's second album. Musically, much of the album remains in the same vein as signature Switchfoot fare. The bittersweet ballads are all there, and the rock element that band has explored in recent years is worked further throughout the album's songs. But fans of the more stripped-down sound of their earlier releases may have a hard time swallowing the more produced approach. Nothing Is Sound is a sonically rich album that fits nicely among the band's impressive discography, offering fans something new, but keeping it very much Switchfoot from start to finish. Whether or not the mainstream continues to embrace the band's music, Switchfoot remains to be one of the best bands in today's current music scene. ~ john dibiase, jesusfreakhideout