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Switchfoot

“Hello Hurricane”

November 2009; Atlantic Records

By Emily J Ramey

Click Here to See the Published Version on American Music Channel

To be honest, I did a figurative double-take when I put on Hello Hurricane for the first time.  Isn’t Switchfoot the alt-rock outfit that gave us such rapid classics as “Dare You to Move” and “Meant to Live?”  The answer is of course, yes, but Jon Foreman and company are breaking new ground with their seventh LP, Hello Hurricane.

Some might say Switchfoot is coming full circle.  Their first couple of albums, released in 1997 and 1999, were pretty punk – they at least featured a few scream vocals and some serious distortion – but Learning to Breathe and The Beautiful Letdown of the early 2000s were known for their gentler, more lyrical tracks.  On Hello Hurricane, Switchfoot has struck a dynamic and genuine balance between the two, which in itself, is new territory.  Now, let’s all welcome Foreman and his crew back to the top.

Hello Hurricane on its own is steady and captivating.  Switchfoot has always been one of those rare bands that can create compositions that all audiences can respect and enjoy as generally good music, and their most recent effort is no exception.  More specifically, a few of the stand-out tracks include “Needle and Haystack Life,” which is a static-y, fast-paced beginning, with optimistic lyrics out of a darkened world: ”In this needle and haystack life/I found miracles there in your eyes/It’s no accident we’re here tonight/We are once in a lifetime;” the album’s first single “Mess of Me,” a distorted, post-punk-infused rager, complete with a self-loathing chorus and a ragged, edgy performance from Foreman; “Your Love is a Song,” a cool, breathing-slowly-out type of ballad – its expressive imagery and steady beat fusing together to create a hushed, poetic sound that is immediately likable;  “The Sound (John M. Perkins’ Blues),” which is a punchy, stout track that acts as a get-up-and-fight(!) song with lyrics like, “This is the sound of a heartbeat/This is the sound of the discontented mouths/Of a haunted nation, we are the voice of breaking down;” the unshakable, shadowy “Free” is a pleading sort of confession song with a striking and memorable chorus that’s simple and easily identified with: “Inside this shell there’s a prison cell;” the mellow, quietly sanguine refrain called “Yet” is a raw, stripped-down Switchfoot that could almost be classified as contemporary folk; and “Sing It Out,” a gently sorrowful song, with despairingly passionate lines like, “Sing it out/Sing it out/Take what is left of me/And make it a melody.”

Hello Hurricane is a battle of optimism and cynicism, positive and negative, and ultimately I think Switchfoot comes to a hopeful conclusion, not just in their songs on the album, but with the album as another milestone in their lengthy, ongoing, and consistently thriving musical career.  Switchfoot, believe it or not, has broadened their musical horizons and audiences once again.  Are you surprised?  Yeah, me neither.

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