Bands like
Switchfoot are never going to get gobstoppingly
amazing reviews; they’re just too ‘standard’ for
that. Most of the time, acts like Switchfoot are
almost critically ignored – and given the sales
that the likes of Switchfoot, Goo Goo Dolls and
others have, you imagine they and the record company
couldn’t give a damn.
Having started life as a contemporary Christian
music act, Switchfoot really broke through with The
Beautiful Letdown. They’ve quickly followed it
up with Nothing is Sound, an album that takes
all the good bits of its predecessor then turns everything
up and tweaks everything just so – this is not so
much as The Beautiful Letdown Pt. II as it
is The Beautiful Letdown plus 3.
It undoubtedly helps that Jon Foreman
has something of the everyman to him – he writes songs that strike
at universal truths without ever really saying anything.
Hey, all he needs to do is marry a British actress
and he could be the American Chris Martin! Opener “Lonely
Nation” is a driving rocker, while single “Stars” has
just the right touch of pop bounce to it backed by
solid guitar sounds.
The likes of Lifehouse have been
bandied about as a comparison for Switchfoot, but
the truth is
that this San Diego four-piece is leaps and bounds
ahead of that grunge-lite outfit. While the clunky “Happy
is a Yuppie Word” completely fluffs it, there’s plenty
of lighter-aloft moments on Nothing is Sound.
It’s true that Switchfoot don’t pull it off as brilliantly
as jimmy eat world (a fellow eight-years-in-the-making
overnight success story), they’re nevertheless a
solid mainstream modern rock act.