by Anonymous Logician, Copyright January 20, 2007, all rights reserved. 800 views
Oh! Gravity, Switchfoot's sixth album, continues the San Diego band's musical innovation. Once again Jon Foreman and company have reinvented their sound, creating a blend of rock and alternative influenced by folk and punk. Switchfoot's originality–not only as contrasted with other bands, but even within their own albums–really sets them apart in a world of musical cardboard cut-outs.
The album's title track is far and away the best, delivering catchy pop/rock social commentary that ought to do well as a radio single. The only criticism this song merits is that it really needs to be longer. "American Dream" and "Dirty Second Hands" continue in the same vein as "Oh! Gravity," while "Circles" ratchets up the intensity. A retro British influence is even evident in "Amateur Lovers," my third favorite after "Gravity" and "American Dream."
Lyrically, Foreman pursues the same lines he sketched in Nothing is Sound, echoing Solomon's disenchantment with life under the sun. Where Solomon said "All is vanity," and the last record answered, "Nothing is sound," Gravity adds, "We don't know what we're doing / but we do it again." Foreman narrows the focus of his beef with modernity, targeting American capitalistic materialism, a worldview in which "success is equated with excess."
Such an American Dream, as Foreman points out, actually limits the freedom it claims to create. Foreman isn't calling for socialism or a removal of free enterprise; he's trying to get us to see the Gospel as the only solution to human selfishness. Business and market forces can't buy freedom any more than government bureaucrats can enforce equality. "I want out of this machine," sings Foreman. "It doesn't feel like freedom."
The worthlessness of materialism is Gravity's theme as a whole. "4:12″ admits to almost believing that "all we are is material" but realizes that "it's nonsensical." "Dirty Second Hands" emphasizes materialism's inability to beat time:
In the land of the free
And the home of the remedy
The old clock is a thief
With dirty second hands.
Again, the problem is the heart: "You might be right; the fight might be right inside you–the blind leading the lied to."
Like Ecclesiastes, "Circles" finds nothing but disillusionment under the sun: "I've lost all that I wanted to leave / I've lost all that I wanted to be … / Don't believe in this modern machine." "Faust, Midas, and Myself" combines the themes of two classic literary works, pointing out that the smooth-talker who promises everything at once is a devil, and that Midas' gift was really a curse. Foreman sings about the allure of gold and lust, which always pull up short of their promise. "As my reflection passed / I hated what I saw; / The golden eyes were dead / A thought passed through my head: / A heart that's made of gold can't really beat at all."
While "Faust" contrasts lust and love, the Rolling-Stones-tinged "Amateur Lovers" cries out for more of the latter: "My baby and me / We're missing the same stuff; / We've all got a disease / Deficiency of love." In "Faust" Foreman finds love in his wife's arms, and in "Head Over Heels" he finds God's love: "You're everything that's fair in love and war."
While on the whole I'm not sure Gravity really tops Nothing is Sound, there's no question that it's a great record. My advice would be to listen to it several times before making a judgment; Switchfoot's songs tend to grow on the listener with each hearing.
Oh–and lest I forget, there's one other great point about the title track: It brings back the phrase "the fallout."