Switchfoot, Oh Gravity!

'Oh Gravity' is the latest album from Grammy nominated San Diego rockers Switchfoot. Switchfoot is a big name in the US, with their 2003 album 'The beautiful Letdown' going double platinum. The song 'Meant to Live' of this album also featured on the UK Spiderman 2 CD release, which has opened the way since, for Switchfoot to slowly gain an audience in the UK and Europe too. After the 2005 release of 'Nothing is Sound' with the singles 'Stars' and 'We are one tonight', Switchfoot further established themselves as a mainstream band and the album eventually reached #3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. 2005 and 2006 saw Switchfoot play an extensive tour with regular appearances on various US TV shows, including the Late Show with David Letterman. Switchfoot still found time to write new material though and this resulted in the 2006 release of 'Oh Gravity' at Christmas.

'Oh Gravity' is a 12 track album, which opens with the fast rocking title song 'Oh Gravity' where Jon Foreman sings about the fact that humanity just seem to be able 'to keep it together'. Perhaps this sets the tone to the rest of the album where lyrically life, its struggles and the failures we all face as humans are sung about in a critical yet not depressing way. The musically excellent and very satisfying second track 'American Dream', expands on this and confronts the listener with the question what life is actually about, what matters for that instance and what our dreams are. Lines such as: ' if success is equated with excess and you're fighting for the beam of the Lexus' and: 'If daddy always talking about a raise' leave the listener with a sense of not settling for the common 'American Dream' idea, and for that matter perhaps a UK dream too.

Modern society is and 21st century humanity is explored further and track 3, 'Dirty Second Hands' tells us the story of modern technology and its hype. Musically again a track that just wants you to move your head and rock, but in a different way than the two previous tracks. Plenty of good guitar work and a decent melody can also be found in 'Awakening', track 4 on this great album. Dealing with the issue of growing up and finding out life isn't always that easy and the world can be a dark place some days, the chorus and funky baseline keep you coming back to this song and fully enjoying it. Currently 'Awakening' is featuring on US MTV. In the the clip the band is playing the song as cardboard characters that are controlled by Adam Campbell (Date Movie, Epic Movie) and Tony Hale (Stranger Than Fiction, Arrested Development) playing 'Guitar Hero' on the PS2.

'Oh Gravity' continues with a variety of different songs. Good mainstream rock is definitely the main emphasis here with strong guitar parts, good funky baselines and neat vocals. Singing about life, love and hinting at there perhaps being something more to life than just what we see and do each day, Switchfoot really delivers a great record here with a good balance between different rock styles. Ballads such as 'Yesterdays': about losing someone close to you and 'Let your love be strong': about love being far more than feeling, are beautiful examples of a rock band being able to write and play a softer song without it being 'cheesy' and not true to the rest of the album.

Another great song worth mentioning before I just recommend you pick up the album somewhere, is '4:12'. This song is pretty funky and really gets you moving and is probably a good indicator that Switchfoot doesn't stand still but is always developing their music and trying new things.

So to cut things short here, 'Oh Gravity' is worth every pound it will cost you. It is great album with some good classic rock stuff, great melodies, catchy chorusses and lyrics that just go a bit further than just the weather and girls.

In addition Switchfoot has an active fan community, a regular updated website and many bootlegs recordings (publicly endorsed by the band) of 'Oh Gravity' songs and older material being available for free download on a site run by fans.