Switchfoot, the Grammy-winning San Diego-based alternative-rock group, presents, Fading West. Inspired as they traveled the world on their 2012 tour, Fading West comes out of their amazing journey - stopping at surfing meccas in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Bali along the way.
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Fading West| Posted January 16, 2014
“We play these songs because we believe in them. Whether or not they’re hits, or whatever that means. … this is our story.” ~ Jon Foreman, Fading West documentary
One characteristic you’ve got to love about Switchfoot is their honesty. In Fading West, designed as somewhat of a soundtrack to their documentary of the same name, Switchfoot delivers a new level of transparency, giving us a glimpse into their world while encouraging us in our own journeys.
The album begins with Love Alone is Worth the Fight, the popular single that has made a splash on Christian radio charts in recent months. This catchy pop song is a reminder that nothing else in life is worth our time or obsession. Fear often holds us back from the one thing that is truly important, and that is love.
Who We Are starts off with a repeated count to five and a tangy guitar solo leading in to Jon Foreman and the well-placed vocal layering of a group of children singing “we were just kids …” The five-member band brilliantly brought their own kids into this track, effectively infusing it with a youthful flair as they sing about their early years as a band, discovering their own identity and style in the world of Christian music. This song is a great anthem for Switchfoot’s personal journey, as well as for any wide-eyed dreamers with the faith of a child, living more for a grand purpose than a paycheck.
When We Come Alive seems to, appropriately, flow with life and energy. It’s about a burning passion within us that, if set free, can set the world on fire. Frontman Jon Foreman says of this track, “For me, the verses enunciate the darkness where the fire shines the brightest. And the chorus reminds me that we have this spark, this ability, this beauty – when and only when we come alive. Truly alive. Not just breathing, but burning brightly, setting the world on fire with a light that is not our own.”
Upbeat, aggressive, and pulsing with soft rock, Say It Like You Mean It explores the challenges of living in the spotlight and finding the correlation between what you say and how you live.
Introduced with the chatter and laughter of African children, The World You Want abruptly transitions to a soft, almost mournful melody. The song makes the point that whatever we believe and however we choose to act – that is our “religion.” No matter what we do, we’re going to change or affect the world. Will we change it for better or worse? The South African children’s choir, Kuyasa Kids, lend their angelic voices to the chorus of this track, giving it an even deeper emotional pull.
Slipping Away is about the strange numb feeling that accompanies the loss of a loved one and the hope of life beyond this life.
Ba55 … musically, this may be the most unique song on the album. Grittier. It has a bit more of a late nineties rock sound than the rest of the album, in a way reminiscent to DC Talk’s Supernatural. This makes a great, high-energy introductory track to the Fading West documentary.
Let It Out is a fun, bouncy tune that challenges us to push past our fears and do what we were born to do. As some of the lyrics say, “From the day we're born, we are scarred and torn. We've been scared to sing out loud. But we don't care no more because we know life is short. We don't care who hears us now. Breathe it in and let it out.”
All Or Nothing At All explores the danger and ultimate joy of unconditional love. Loving through the pain, loving despite another person’s flaws. Loving although your heart may break. In a way, this song revisits the message of the album’s opening track and peers at it from a slightly different angle. But once again we hear the much-needed point that love is worth all the risk and effort that we put into it.
With a beautiful chorus that could double as a worship song, Saltwater Heart is about longing for God’s Spirit and love to wash through us like an ocean. As if it’s saltwater flowing through our veins. We often begin to feel stuck, in the middle of a dry spot, creatively or spiritually land-locked. This is a song about finding freedom and inspiration after the low times. Inspired by Switchfoot’s love of surfing, Saltwater Heart flows with two-fold purpose and meaning. It drips with a passion for real saltwater and with the metaphor of God’s love being as vast and cleansing as the ocean.
The final track, ironically titled Back to the Beginning Again, speaks of the fears and doubts that lurk beneath our dreams – and finding God in the midst of the insanity. Starting anew with the Creator as our focus. It’s a great wrap up to the album. A clincher statement, if you will, to reestablish the reason behind why these guys do what they do.
Ultimately, Fading West is a challenge. A challenge to love deeply, to pursue our driving passions and talents, to overcome the crippling effect of doubt and fear. To make a difference with the lives we live. It’s a challenge from others traveling the same road. It’s not about thinking that you have arrived, it’s about the journey of discovery that we all take through life.
“I’m singing these songs as a person in transit. As a soul that has not arrived yet.” ~ Fading West documentary
In the end, it’s about finding who our Creator made us to be … and living that with everything we are.
Brilliant Horizons| Posted January 11, 2014
For most bands whose discography spans over a decade and a half, the challenge to stay fresh usually either ends in either a complete direction change leaving fans with whiplash, or with a tedious battle to top their our previous efforts by recreating the same record just a little better each time. These are pitfalls cornerstone rock act Switchfoot has managed to sidestep entirely.
Switchfoot's 8th studio effort Vice Verses showed us that the veteran rockers remained unafraid to explore new territory, constantly growing and diversifying musically while refining rather than losing their core identity as a band. The September 2011 release was pumped full of thick guitar tones, heavy bass beats, and hip-hop meets alt rock chemistry.
That change in stance to lean more on beat and percussion perfectly set the stage musically for yet another leap into the unknown with the band's early 2014 effort Fading West. This is an album born along with the film by the same title, not as a soundtrack, but certainly as an accompaniment. Just as the movie traced the band's journey through the world's coastlines, music venues, beauties and challenges, the album traces a similar journey.
This album both begins and ends with statements about the core identity of the band in songs "Love Alone is Worth the Fight" and "Back to the Beginning." The first song on the album is also its lead single, an infectious reminder of the core motive behind the songs Switchfoot sings. This song soars through its upbeat hooks with a mood significantly more polished and pop than has previously been familiar for the band's work, but it's a sound they pull off believably.
The pop factor is one of the album's surprises, an element that holds steady and resurfaces throughout like a current pulling the songs out into uncharted waters. "All or Nothing At All" is another example of this, a song built up around the steady pulse of a rich beat provided by drummer Chad Butler and the exquisitely layered keyboard tones offered by Jerome Fontamillas. This is a love song that subverts the pre-packaged consumer-driven concepts of love more frequently heard in pop-styled music, declaring that love is not love unless it accepts another soul completely, with all its deepest flaws: "you and I both know our fatal flaws / we both know that love is what you make it / I want you all or nothing at all."
"Let it Out" carries some of that same slick pop sensibility, but the structure of its instrumentation is simpler, allowing the core message of the song to stand front and center. Clapped beats provide basic percussion and a simple piano bed anchors the track as frontman Jonathan Foreman empties his lungs into a cry calling us to refuse to be silenced by a noisy, numbing world.
Fans of classic Switchfoot will be grateful though that this is still undeniably the same band that produced such rock cornerstones as "Meant to Live" and "Stars." "Say it Like You Mean It" proves this. This track has teeth, biting deep with aggressive verses about maintaining integrity in what you say and do, beautifully exemplifying the thundering fuzzy guitar tones that are guitarist Drew Shirley's trademark. The slightly crowded and unusual instrumentation might also remind some listeners of "Oh! Gravity," an album that has previously been largely stylistically isolated in the band's catalog.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of this album that makes itself known repeatedly is its infectiously upbeat posture. High-energy anthem "Who We Are" is a good example of this, a song starting with a funky vibe and a muted count to five-- a number denoting the five members of the band, representing from the first that this is an autobiographical account of Switchfoot's journey. This song is not entirely inward-turned though, as it very intentionally reminds listeners "there's still time enough to choose who we are."
"When We Come Alive" is another song that is uplifting in the truest sense of the word as it reminds listeners of the particular radiance our souls have when we choose to let them shine in the dark. This vividly arranged and worded track exemplifies what it looks like when we choose not to allow true life to be overcome.
This upbeat and energetic pacing is balanced by three more mellow-hearted tracks in the album's center. "The World You Want" is a song of recognizing the broken places in the world while emphasizing that we have a measure of responsibility in healing it. The more subdued tone fits beautifully the indictment standing against our own self-preoccupation, leaving us with the reminder that where we invest our actions proves what we believe: "what you say is your religion / how you say it's your religion / who you love is your religion / how you love is your religion..."
"Slipping Away" is also more in line with Switchfoot's darker, more introspective work lyrically, although the musical tone is more upbeat and dynamic than might be expected from the poetic and almost desperate lyrics: "Fear is just a shadow of the things that matter the most / and I fear that I'm losing hope tonight." The arranging here is also slightly reminiscent of Oh! Gravity, particularly in the flow of the verses.
Another intense track immediately follows with "Ba55," a song that suitably begins with a thumping bass line proferred by Tim Foreman. The song layers haunting tones as it progresses, lyrically exploring the purifying nature frequently found in challenges as it musically soars through dark, distorted guitar interludes and Jon Foreman's moody vocals.
The song that most tangibly ties this album to the ocean shores that inspired it is "Saltwater Heart," a song that draws on some of the mild hip-hop influences first employed on Vice Verses as it explores water as something spiritual, the tie between our water-filled bodies and their longing for the ocean a metaphor for a much deeper longing for our souls to be united with the Image they were drawn from. The track's structure and songwriting style are both intriguing and instantly memorable, and it showcases deep honesty as one of the greatest strengths of Jon Foreman's songwriting.
Chill, symphonic synth tones usher in the album's final curtain, previously mentioned "Back to the Beginning." This song beautifully echoes back to "Love Alone Is Worth the Fight," ending the journey with a reminder again of the necessity of digging deep and holding steadfast to your source of life, no matter how far beyond familiar shores life's current may draw you. Yearning marks this track, but it is also marked by hope stayed upon the One who authors and perfects redemption in chaotic, distracted lives: "but you're what I'm running for / and I want to feel the wind at my back again / back to the beginning again."
Closing Thoughts:
"Where do songs come from?" Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman muses when reflecting on the process of creating Fading West. "For me, they come from uncomfortable places. Awkward, painful places where I feel tested-- face to face with questions that don't have easy answers."
Much of this album is born of both the joy and sorrow that comes from facing those questions head-on, embracing them with a sense of humility and wonder in recognizing that, despite our flaws, we are gifted with rich life. The album bears the same sense of brave exploration and elated adventure that the movie holds, and it also carries the reminder that intense joy is not born without a fight. Musically, the album boasts melodies smooth as the colors of a sunkissed shore, with texture in the instrumentation as deep as the restless ocean water that poured itself into these songs.
Although the pop-driven nature characterizing much of this album might require some getting used to for longtime Switchfoot fans, it seems like a suitable sound for this chapter of the band's story-- a chapter more full of vivacious energy, wide-eyed joy, and earnest hope than ever before. If there is any doubt about where this vibrance stems from, Jon Foreman clarifies it best: "...my fears and doubts began the day I was born. And yet, my hope is anchored on the other side of life and death with the colors that live outside the lines."
Song to Download Now:
"Love Alone is Worth the Fight" (Get it on iTunes here.)
Early Album of the Year Contender| Posted February 03, 2014
2014 barely begun and right away we got treated to what I see is the best album of the year in Switchfoot's latest Fading West. If you thought that this album would follow the more subdued indie sound of the band last two albums, think again. Fading West maintains a more radio friendly pop sound that ends up working well with the album in general. Think of Oh! Gravity but done much much better. (And with no label interference.) Lyrically, Fading West gets to the heart of what Switchfoot is while also uncovering a need by the band to "reboot" themselves. If that is the case then I welcome this change wholeheartedly. Since this album is technically a soundtrack to the band's documentary film of the same name, (a film I haven't seen yet,) the way these tracks are ordered is great in that the band took time to meticulously place each track in order for maximum emotional effect.
Fading West is Switchfoot's most accessible album to date. People will dig their new pop rock sound. The lyrics are inspirational and revealing as to who the band is and what they want to do. It's Oh! Gravity done right and ends up being an early contender for album of the year.
Switchfoot "Fading West" Review| Posted January 26, 2014
Over the years, Switchfoot has become my favorite Christian band of all time. They've consistently turned out good music, and are the most down-to-earth band I know of. After filming and releasing a movie of the same name, Switchfoot has released their ninth studio album Fading West.
This album sees Switchfoot geering towards a more contemporary music sound. The band stated that they wanted to go beyond the limits of a three-minute pop song, and while I do not believe they achieved this goal, with the exception of "Say It Like You Mean It" and "BA55", it does not mean that this isn't an enjoyable album. Fading West is the perfect album to pick you up when you're feeling down.
The singles "Love Alone is Worth the Fight" and "Who We Are" open up this album. These are still very enjoyable tracks, but in my opinion aren't as good as other songs on this album. "When We Come Alive" is an anthemic pop/rock track that will have you singing along pretty quickly. This is one of my favorites on the record. "Say It Like You Mean It" is another highlight, which shows the gritty side of Switchfoot. This song is built around an incredible drum and bass groove, layered with distorted vocals and fuzzed out guitars. Fans who favor the harder side of Switchfoot will love this song. "The World You Want" is my favorite song on this album, because of the killer drum intro and the singalong chorus. Lyrically, this song moves very much emotionally, as the song talks about how we change the world everyday we're alive. I like how they incorporated bits of the movie with them working with the South African kids choir into the song.
"Slipping Away" is another anthemic pop track, in the vein of songs like "Secrets" by OneRepublic. "BA55" is a very experimental track, which once again has an incredible bass line, and a very nice guitar solo to cap off the song. "Let it Out" is an extremely energetic pop song, with an extremely intruiging guitar intro. Tim Foreman said it best, "You can't listen to this song without smiling." "All or Nothing at All" isn't my favorite track, but I like it's message about loving someone (probably a wife) with all of you. "Saltwater Heart" is a very bouncy track with a great chorus as well. I love the spiritual metaphor of being refreshed by the ocean being like being refreshed by God. "Back to the Beginning" is another energetic pop track that closes the album on a high note.
Overall, while Fading West isn't the best album they've released, it is another solid entry into the Switchfoot catalouge. I think this is a perfect album for summer and a great mood lifter. This is definitely a good buy.
Consistantly good music| Posted January 20, 2014
I am a big Switchfoot since hearing them on Jay Leno. This is a Christian band that outshines other Christian bands because they have a unique sound, and a professional polish to what they do. When you add thought provoking lyrics that step away from the common stright forward "God loves you" repetition that is all too common in Christian music, you get a top quality band producing top quality music. I am not saying Christian music shouldn't worship or preach about love, but sometimes a band should be able to tell a story and let you search for the meaning yourself.
This album doesn't disappoint Switchfoot fans. The songs are catchy, the style familiar, and quailty top notch. When I first listened to the album, I was already familiar with "Love alone is worth the fight" and felt that this was a great song to start off the album. After a few passes through, "The World You Want" quickly became my favorite - a rousing call to all of us to make this world better. The other songs like "Slipping Away" and the pop sounding "All Or Nothing At All" started to grow on me and I realized that this album is full of potential hits.
The only thing that prevents me from giving it a perfect score is that it is very "switchfoot-y". There is no song on this album that blew me away. Although a few will remain of my playlist for a while there wasn't a song that I was grabbing people and saying "you have to hear this." This is not a complaint because the album is awsome. Maybe Switchfoot has set the bar too high; maybe I want more because they are already the best.
If you are Switchfoot fan, this is a great addition to the collection and the album will not disappoint. If you are not familiar with Switchfoot, but want something with a little bit of an edge, plus lyrics that challenge, then give this album a listen.
Fading West: 2014's Best Album| Posted January 15, 2014 BREAKING NEWS: The best album of 2014 has released. And only two weeks into the new year! Well, that is actually just my humble opinion and it isn't only because they are my favorite band and I have been waiting for this album for over 2 years. In their 8th studio project, Switchfoot once again reaches new heights and has songs that you will hear everyone at the concert singing along to. I describe their music as "Surfer Indie Rock," which is exactly what it is. I found out about this movie/cd combination in June of 2012 when I went to their concert and there were cameras and Jon said "Tonight we are recording a movie called 'Fading West.'" About a year and a half after it, the soundtrack that accompanies the movie is released. Coming off the best 2 albums of their career ("Hello Hurricane and "Vice Verses"), they had a lot to hold up to. They didn't want to just write "another 3-minute pop song." They wanted to reach new heights and I believe they did that and then some. The 11 songs on the album not only reflect their journey as a band, but their memories of being one of America's most popular bands that travel the world for a living. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you "Fading West."
The album's lead-off track is one of the best I have ever heard. "Love Alone Is Worth the Fight" is about how love is such a touchy subject these days. The title says it all. Love is one of the few things that is truly worth fighting for. That's what the band has always focused on. Jon Foreman, rhythm guitarist, lead singer and main songwriter for the band, has always written about probably every kind of love that their is. The band is so successful because they are full of love. "Who We Are," the album's lead single and is the most personal song about the band's journey on the record. At the beginning of their career, they were told a lot that they would never make it far, which is what made them so popular. They even state that the band has came farther than they ever expected.
"When We Come Alive" is basically Jon reflecting on how surprised and excited he is that Switchfoot became so popular. He even states in the film that he never in a million years thought they would release eight full-length studio albums. When they come alive, they light the sky. Being a musician is one of the hardest careers out there, since you are away from your family for most of the year. The fourth track on the album, "Say It Like You Mean It," is my favorite. I love the beginning bass riff. This is the song about people criticizing the band and saying that they would never make it. They didn't believe those words, even if the person saying it said it like they meant it. They took those words and never gave up. In fact, they turned it into eight full length albums.
"The World You Want" features a little snippet of them singing in Bali. The song has very similar lyrics as their 2004 hit "This Is Your Life." Everyday that you live, you make the world that you are living in. Your choices, your actions make the world around you. Who you choose as friends, what you do, etc. For Switchfoot, their music makes their world and if I were them, I would enjoy every minute of it. "Slipping Away" is another reflection of Jon's of how all of Switchfoot's success feels like a dream. He never quit and he and Switchfoot deserves every bit of success they have gotten. They have gone through hell, but survived because of their perseverance.
"BA55" is the longest song on the album, yet has the least lyrics. It's almost like a worship song. In the song, Jon writes on how he wants and believes that God is the fire that can burn him clean of all his mistakes. He is telling God to take his soul in the song because, without God, they would be nowhere near where they are today. "Let It Go" is another one of my favorites on the album. When Switchfoot first started out, all their members were in high school. They were really scared to sing in front of everyone and were scared that they would never be successful. They then realized that life is short and sometimes you got to step out of your comfort zone if you want to be a successful person in life.
"All Or Nothing At All" is basically Jon's song to Switchfoot's fans. They are the reason they kept fighting. It is probably what he told himself even in Switchfoot's darkest times. He wants to have it all or nothing. If you have nothing, then whatever are you going to ever make of yourself? Being from a city that is an ocean city and spending most of their off time in the ocean, there was no doubt you would hear one or two songs that relate to water. "Saltwater Heart" is just that. This is Swichfoot's song to their home city and state of San Diego (where I was also born and lived in for a total of about 10 years of my life). It is the city where all their career started and it will most likely be the place of their final concert (God forbid that ever happens though). "Back To the Beginning" is the perfect way to end the album. First of all, because i will go back to the beginning of the album several times over. But it reflects on, again, how successful they have become. Sometimes Jon wants to just go back to the beginning of the band's career and trying to remember how it felt.
Well, this album makes me completely speechless. It is so good and is perfect in so many ways. I mean, it's Switchfoot for Pete's sake. Like most of Switchfoot's albums, "Fading West" has such a summery sound. That being said, even though I listen to them year-round, Switchfoot is always perfect in the middle of July on the way to the beach. That is very true, considering all of the band members are just about on the professional level of surfing. I can say one thing to you, if you like indie or Switchfoot, you will not be disappointed. They just keep getting better with every release. Cheers to the best album of 2014.
New Year, New Foot| Posted January 14, 2014
It took me awhile to catch onto Switchfoot, but once I did I haven't stopped listening to them. Now with number eight dropped in the thick of winter, this album is a breath of crisp summer air. There is classic SF at the core, but musically there is a different vibe and it is refreshing. Great way to start of the year.
Album Review: Switchfoot - Fading West (lowercase people/Atlantic)| Posted January 14, 2014 Fading West released on January 14, 2014, and this is their ninth studio album for their history. I would affirm that this release was not as good as its predecessor Vice Versus. The album has many tremendous sonic beats to get you to be energized for Jesus Christ.
“Love Alone Is Worth the Fight” and “Who We Are” are the lead singles from the album, and the former was one of auditory goodness imploring believers to never yield to the cynical nature of this life rather focus on loving the journey. The latter is a song that takes you on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs with respect to the beat, and it is about the band defining who they are.
The song “When We Come Alive” is about when the believer awakens that it will be a beautiful moment. “Say It Like You Mean It” is a song that had some auditory dissonance, and is about not sugar coating our message because we may be afraid of what the world would think. The song entitled “The World You Want” is hauntingly chilling song about standing and fighting about a world that we as believers want to see now and yet to come in the future.
“Slipping Away” contains a chill and cheerful beat, and the song is about our time to make an impact as believers was fading away. The song entitled “BA55” comes with psychedelic vibe to it and it is about the purification of believers and sinners by the burning light of Jesus Christ in order to serve him. “Let It Out” contains a dancing-esque beat that makes you want to shout it out for the Maker.
The song “All or Nothing at All” is a cool-ish poppy track about us as believers should want to give and get 100-percent to and from our Redeemer. “Saltwater Heart” contains an ecstatic beat about dropping the lip service small talk we pay to our Savior and living for Him with abandonment after reconciliation with Him. The song “Back to the Beginning Again” crests to stirringly hastening vibe about our lives are His and to come back to Him so we can feel refreshed once again as believers.
The album was one of great musical insight from a band that has lived the lyrics they are espousing. It has many stylistically terrific shifts to keep the listener on their toes, and to learn the music and let it implore their hearts for Jesus Christ. This would be their magnum opus if not for its predecessor, but it was a one of the finer albums the band has made.
Rating: 9/10 Stars (*********/**********)
Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said in the U2 rockumentary ‘Rattle and Hum’ that “It’s a musical journey” and maybe this is the best way to describe the latest offering from Californian band Switchfoot. In fact to say ‘Fading West’ is an album is almost incorrect, it’s more like the soundtrack of a journey.
‘Fading West’ is a musical photo album that shows us snapshots of Switchfoot’s tour around the world, taking in the new sounds they found, the sights, the struggles and the moments of insight. An album of fresh breath, music and the magnetic pull of the sea…
This is the most personal Switchfoot album so far… it’s so fresh you can still taste the salt from the waves they’ve just surfed!
Before I heard ‘Fading West’ album I thought, “How can Switchfoot better their previous album ‘Vice Verses’? ”
‘Vice Verses’ could be considered one of the best albums out in the past couple of years, an album that is musically gifted, emotionally challenging and yet still accessible…”
How can you beat that?
The Answer… You don’t!
Vice Verses, was Vice Verses… It was the past, lets leave it there and give it the credit it’s due!
Fading West is something new something exciting, and something daring.
It’s daring because ANY band can live on past glory by bringing out an album of 12 songs that mimic what has been done before.
However it’s a risk for a band that says “Let’s create something organic. Let’s push ourselves into the unknown. Let’s discover who we are…”
This album is maybe more mellow than most people are used to hearing from Switchfoot. The screaming guitars and grunt of something more heavy have been pushed back to an extent as the band venture into new sonic inspirations. This might make some Switchfoot fans a little uncomfortable… and that’s GREAT.
Music is there to make you feel good, but there is often nothing that challenges you more than music either and having a band take you off your usual stride is good for the soul, and challenges the band the strive for something that is just as meaningful in other ways.
This is the perfect soundtrack for those who enjoy surfing/skateboarding/snowboarding or anything that gets you away from the crushing monotony of our busy lives… it was an album made for space… of fun and adventure.
There is no doubt this is a surf pop/rock album that is meant to be the soundtrack to your adventures, just as it was for the band.
There is plenty here for everyone and while it’s not going to please those who wanted a whole album with screaming guitars and solos, there are tracks like “Let it out” and “Say it like you mean it” that will cater to that market.
Tracks such as “Love alone is worth the fight” and “Who we are” will reach out to maybe a new generation, as poppier songs that still give emotional depth seldom seen in a pop song these days.
Buy or download the Surf/Rockumentary ‘Fading West’ (the film) and you will have a greater understanding of where the songs come from… While being able to admire the AMAZING surf skills of Rob Machado and Tom Curren.
I don’t think that this is a step in a new direction for the band…. I think it’s an album that shows the band at their most vulnerable.
SURFS UP… let this be the surf album for the adventure you were made for!
to add lyrics if not listed.
