#76: A full fledged review of "Nothing is Sound"

Overall Rating: ◆◆◆◆◆
Out of Switchfoot's three albums since their mainstream breakthrough, this one is their best, and also my favorite. I didn't really appreciate it, though, until more than a year after its November, 2005 release.

OK, this is an extremely long review. I will be surprised if more than two people can read the whole thing through.

So without further ado...

"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."