Dhember Viera
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
“Fading West,” Switchfoot’s latest album, can be described as the album for “the traveling soul.” For those who are unsettled and wandering, this album helps seek purpose through the journey. Seeking for inspiration and surfs across the world, Switchfoot’s album looks for the answer of where is home, and that home doesn’t necessarily look like what we think it does. The album can be compared to taking a breath of fresh summer air and plunging into a blue ocean.“Fading West” is a pop-upbeat driven record, unlike their last album, “Vice Verses,” which featured the raw guitars and vocals that Switchfoot has always been known for. This album takes their sound into a brighter tone, replacing the angst of before.
Opening with “Love Alone Is Worth The Fight,” this Switchfoot record is in a completely different world than previous records. Instead of harsh beginnings, “Fading West” lifts you into an open space of breath, layers and sounds. It is strange to not have rougher beginnings, electronics and piano playing more in this record than in previous ones. And of course, like any movement sung by Jon Foreman, the chorus “love alone is worth the fight” brings a strong feeling.
“Who We Are” is one of their more unique tracks, using Switchfoot’s own children as backing vocals. It almost becomes a fist-pumping anthem of youth, but instead of being a protest towards doing what “the man” with the “company car” tells you to do, it’s more a fun reaffirmation that you’re young and that it is okay to take a chance and be carefree.
The album has many uplifting, upbeat songs — like the anthem “Let It Out,” the catchy spoken-word like song “Saltwater Heart,” and “a happy song about death” “Slipping Away” — so it does make the two rockier tracks stick out like sore thumbs. The track “Say It Like You Mean It,” with its running, gritty guitars, the kind their “Vice Verses” album offers, feels a bit like an outcast on the album. The track “Ba55” has something deep and blues-like about it. This track has experimental vocals and an underlying groove that feels influenced by Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” album, making it a unique track.
Bringing some criticism to the table, Jon Foreman’s lyrics are not as progressive as they previous have been. There is a sense that repetitive Jon-phrases are dusted across “Fading West,” unlike his solo work where the lyrics are beautifully thought out.
It’s not the typical Switchfoot sound, but then sometimes typical gets dull.
“Breathe it in and let it out” — “Let It Out,” Switchfoot.
