|
|
Music CD - Switchfoot: Nothing Is Sound
|
Music CD: Nothing Is Sound
Artist: Switchfoot
List Price: $18.97
Our Price: $3.79
Your Save: $ 15.18 ( 80% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Tracks:
|
1. Lonely Nation
2. Stars
3. Happy Is A Yuppie Word
4. The Shadow Proves The Sunshine
5. Easier Than Love
6. The Blues
7. The Setting Sun
8. Politicians
9. Golden
10. The Fatal Wound
11. We Are One Tonight
12. Daisy
|
|
|
Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0828767764221
Format: Enhanced
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 2005-09-13
Studio: Sony
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Some absolute gems in this album
Comment: This is NOT Switchfoots best album -- opinions vary about that (I'm a pretty big fan of the latest "Oh Gravity") -- but it has some real stand out tracks beyond "Stars". While "Stars" got plenty of airplay on CCM and even a few secular stations, the edgier work on this disk is really where it shines. I'd throw this criticism at "Stars," that it's really just quintesential Switchfoot, a relatively unremarkable recording because of how typical it is of the group. With that in mind, I know the tracks I favor might be the ones that cause most people to reject the album. "Politicians" is a solid metal-core effort and stands out for having the most straight forward and unleashed presentation of Switchfoots strengths musically. "Golden" goes where the other tracks don't by being less moody and melodic, perhaps it's edgy just for being such a light direction on a primarily brooding effort. This album grows on you, and it seems to be holding up better for me than "The Beautiful Letdown" after repeated listenings. I do find myself skipping through some tracks, but the ones I like justify my decision to buy this CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing is sound
Comment: First, to all the people who complain about this thing being protected- yes, it is irritating to try and put this on an iPod, however, that is not the reason to give a product a 1 or 2 star rating. Now, to the review. This album to me has 2 parts- the first half being a stronger and more emotive half and then the other half of the cd. I've heard Switchfoot being called a "thinking man's band" and I have to agree with whoever came up with that assessment. This CD is more philosophical than most of what's out there today, and to me that's a good thing. My favorite track would most definitely be Politicians. I like how Jon questions subjects like modern society with even more questions. I enjoy the music and at the same time, it gets me thinking about the lyrical content. Personally, one of my favorite albums of the decade that can be appreciated by both Christians and non Christians alike.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Makes You Want to Drink Your Sorrows Away
Comment: Most of the songs have guitars strumming around the same volume level of the lyrics with a few songs letting them ring out without so much orchestration. Mostly, those few are the ones that I like because they have the strongest lyrics and you can hear it without needing to read along. However, the biggest problem I have with Switchfoot is there repetitive themes of pain and hopelessness. I have an extensive music collection with plenty of depressing songs in it, don't get me wrong, but I think an album needs more hope than just "the shadow proves the sunshine" (which is a good song but not enough to compensate for the rest of the gloomy album).
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Under-Rated Albums of this Decade
Comment: Out of Switchfoot's three albums since their mainstream breakthrough, this one is their best, and also my favorite.
With three guitarists, a keyboard and, of course, drums and bass, the songs are sometimes epic & have multiple layers of harmony. The lyrics in the first half of album are dark and heartbroken, sometimes angry, but turn to hope in the end.
"Lonely Nation" is the first track, lamenting the emptiness of modern America. "Stars", the second track, is a much more upbeat and hopeful song with incredible guitar riffs. "Everyone, you look so lonely...you look so empty. But when I look at the stars...I see someone else".
The next song is the eloquently titled "Happy is a Yuppy Word", a song that is unflinching in its acknowledgment of the truth of the emptiness and fragility of this life, with lines taken straight from the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes. "Everything fails, everything runs its course." But again, there is also an acknowledgment of the hope we have in eternity: "I'm looking for an orphanage, I'm looking for a bridge I can't burn down." The depressed tone continues through the next song, "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine," which is the weakest song--at least musically--on the album. It starts out well, but loses its emotional impact due to just a little too much "noise" and just a little too long running time.
The next song is "Easier Than Love", a partly satirical, partly disgusted, and partly mournful look at the way too many people believe sex and love are one. "Sex is currency, she sells car, she sells magazines. Addictive, bittersweet...everyone's a lost romantic ever since love became a kissing show...she's easier than love...it's easier to fake and smile and bribe..everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone."
The next track is "The Blues", an excellent song in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seems like a version of "Happy is a Yuppy Word", "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" and "Easier Than Love" all rolled into one. While the song itself is a masterpiece, both lyrically and musically, its unfortunate placement disrupts the continuity of the album and takes the depressed tone just one space too far.
Next is "The Setting Sun". It's at this point that the tone of the album changes, becoming more hopeful, but still dark. It's a song about heaven: "I've got a wound that doesn't heal...I'm alone again, burning out again...It won't be long, I belong somewhere past the setting sun, finally free, finally strong, somewhere back where I belong."
Next is another song that contrasts the brokenness and emptiness of earthly kingdoms vs. God's kingdom, i.e., heaven. This is the most angry and even bitter song on the album: "Entropy and aching. Where have we been aiming?...We are the faded, splitted and sedated, everything is breaking down!...I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians, watching for my sky to get torn apart."
The next song is "Golden", which has the weakest lyrics of all songs on the album. Still, it's not bad, just non-descript, and it's a welcome break from the intense emotion of all the songs so far.
Next, though, is the darkest song on the album: "The Fatal Wound". This one is, I think, a self-examination and acknowledgment of the need for change. "I am the crisis...I am the razor edge. I'm gonna gun this down...son of sorrow staring down forever/with an aching view, disenchanted. Let's do down together with the fatal wound."
After this is the song "We Are One Tonight". This song tells the other side of the dark truths and ends on a hopeful note: "I'll rise. I'll fall. I'll fail you all...the world is flawed, but these scars will heal...I'm no victim, I've paid these dues. I came to lose...I don't want to lose the common ground...I don't want to fight about it now with the whole world upside down...Let's slow the evening down. The stars are coming out!"
The final song is "Daisy", a masterpiece both lyrically and musically. It's a gentle coaxing to someone with a bitter heart to let it go and surrender to love--i.e., God. "Daisy, give yourself away...look up at the rain. A beautiful display/of power and surrender. She comes down easy, on rich and dead the same...Daisy...who will take the blame/of all redemptive motion/and every rainy day/when He gives himself away...Let it go, Daisy, let it go."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rocks, but still stays true to previous efforts.
Comment: I have all six of their studio albums and just finished a review about how I like the 'Beautiful Letdown' album best. That said, I think this album is quite good, too. To rank the six albums in order from best to worst, I think this would be about number three behind 'Beautiful Letdown' and 'Learning to Breathe' and just before 'Oh, Gravity'. That ranking is by looking at the albums as a whole. Now if you're looking for an album that rocks, I'd recomend 'Oh, Gravity' first and then this one, but i like the overall feel and flow of the music better on this one. The songs seem 'truer?'. The songs on 'Learning to Breathe' seem to have a little more 'heart', but this album comes pretty close and rocks a lot more. I really enjoy it and recomend it.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Switchfoot is the classic eight-year "overnight success" story. With a pocketful of radio hits, award nominations, and multi-platinum status, the band's Beautiful Letdown in 2003 introduced Switchfoot to a whole new world. But let's keep in mind that prior to the massive success, the San Diego-based band honed its chops with constant touring and three solid independent albums. Nothing Is Sound lives up to expectations with plenty of guitar-driven alternative rock bound to keep everyone happy. And that is the irony here as lead man Jon Foreman continues to sing about loneliness, alienation, and disenchantment in the land of plenty. "Lonely Nation," "Stars," and "The Fatal Wound" paint a bleak picture of a generation gripped by greed but remaining unsatisfied. Yet with every dark stroke, Foreman casts an eye toward a brighter tomorrow with hopeful lines like "I don't believe the emptiness/I'm looking for the kingdom coming down" in "Happy Is A Yuppie Word" and "Though the world is flawed these scars will heal/We are one tonight" in "We Are One Tonight." Foreman's ever-improving songwriting is enhanced by rich, lush production and a driving rhythm section of bassist Tim Foreman and drummer Chad Butler. Newer members Jerome Fontamillas (keys) and Andrew Shirley (guitars) fill out the empty spots well, giving Switchfoot a shimmering sonic glow on this superb release. This is another leap forward for one of rock's most promising bands. --Michael Lyttle
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
