Switchfoot: Oh! Gravity Transcript

UMC.org Music Review

Switchfoot: Oh! Gravity
Label: Columbia
Sound/Style: melodic guitar-driven modern rock with early '80s influences

By Steve Morley

(UMC.org)—The latest release from the California band Switchfoot explores contradictions between the way things are designed to behave and the ways they deviate from that design. That theme informs the track "Amateur Lovers," a semi-sweet look at fumbling attempts to meet our own emotional needs: "We’ve all got a disease/ Deficiency of love/ Every day we still try/ Every night we still cry/ We're driving home on the 805/ We don’t know what we’re doing/ We do it again/ We’re just amateur lovers/ With amateur friends." The sizeable Christian segment of Switchfoot’s audience may chalk up such quandaries to the fall of humankind, while secular fans might discern something else in the probing lyrics of songwriter and vocalist Jon Foreman. Such is Foreman’s talent for widespread accessibility, a knack which has won the band respect on both sides of the well-protected border between Christian and mainstream product. Once again, Switchfoot deftly maintains musical and spiritual integrity on their Columbia album Oh! Gravity, a hard-hitting work overflowing with classic rock references. Especially noticeable are echoes of British punk- and pop-rock, as well as a deep bow to U2’s urgent early ‘80s period. Original U2 producer Steve Lillywhite is on board for the new Switchfoot disc, a natural pairing that yields a sound majoring in aggression and minoring in atmosphere.

Another motif on the disc is materialism—not just the worldly kind, but also the existential variety. The sleep-deprived protagonist in the song "4:12" debates himself, determined to get past the impression that reality is merely physical: "I still can’t believe that all we are/ And that all of our dreams are nothing more than material…" "American Dream," meanwhile, takes aim at greed in a nation where Foreman says that "the ambition for excess wrecks us" and concludes "I’m tired of fighting for just me—this ain’t my American dream." When the singer points fingers, he generally includes himself as an offender. Foreman describes his own disorientation on "Circles," asking "Am I on purpose?" Weary and lost at the tune’s end, he offers a rare admonition to his listeners to reject a mechanical existence: "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!"

Foreman often employs outsized literary conflicts like "man versus machine" and "man versus himself;" the two themes are even fused on "Dirty Second Hands," which addresses the tyranny of the clock as well as the soiled hands of its human inventor.

When Foreman touches upon his source of spiritual strength on "Head Over Heels," this too comes with a confession of selfishness and striving before he rests in the comfort his faith offers: "In this life, you’re the one place I call home/ In this life, you’re the feeling I belong/ In this life, you’re the flower and the thorn/ You’re everything that’s fair in love and war." Throughout the record, Foreman’s take on his Christian beliefs is one of being painfully alert to the pitfalls of life and straining toward the upward way. The fact that Switchfoot may have more fans than actual followers on that soul-taxing path does nothing to diminish the potential of Oh! Gravity to speak to anyone feeling the crush in the valley below.

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