"Your Love Is Enough," the first single from Jon Foreman's EP, The Wonderlands: Shadows was produced by Foreman and Seth Mosley. The track celebrates the wonder of unconditional love, one that is steadfast even in the face of our missteps. "Your Love Is Enough" can be streamed on Spotify.
The Wonderlands: Shadows also features tracks produced by Grouplove's Andrew Wessen, Charlie Peacock, Ryan O'Neal from Sleeping At Last, Eric Owyoung from Future Of Forestry, Darren King and Jeremy Edwardson. The six-song EP released digitally by lowercasepeople records on July 17, 2015.
"I often joke that I write songs about the things that I don't understand: namely, God, girls, politics and death. It might sound funny but it's true; music speaks with the words that I can't find," said Foreman, lead vocalist/guitarist of Grammy-winning rock band Switchfoot. "I try my best to write the songs that are inside of my soul. 'Your Love Is Enough' is just that. It's a song that chronicles my lifelong battles with doubt and fear. Our roads in life can be painful at times -- lonely, dark, and discouraging -- but we are not alone."
"You define yourselves/by the things you can't live without," Foreman sings on "The Ghost Machine," the EP's opening track. Whether it's technology, relationships or something as primal as the pull of the sea, songs like the slinky "Good For Me" and the ambient, elegantly orchestrated "Siren's Song" suggests we stop to examine the impact of what entices us. The surprisingly upbeat "My Coffin" and the dreamy "Fake Your Own Death" underscore how contemplating one's mortality can bring the here-and-now into sharper focus.
"Shadows" is the second in Foreman's four-EP series, The Wonderlands. The ambitious solo project has been 10 years in the making and features 24 songs, one for each hour of the day, recorded with a total of 24 co-producers.
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Dimming the Lights| Posted July 17, 2015
The second installment of Jon Foreman's 4 EP, 24 song series is titled Shadows. Jon has said of this set "these six songs are to accompany the end of the day-- the light is fading, the darkness is growing and the night is almost here."
Musically, the shift in mood from the last EP is instantly perceptible and distinct. Here the whimsy of Sunlight is replaced by earnesty, the lilting pop tone tempered by more haunting melodies and hollowed out arrangements. Opener "Ghost Machine" recognizes our digital vices, mournfully commenting on the ubiquitous smartphone "my idolatry's in the pocket of my coat."
"My Coffin" picks up where Sunlight's "Terminal" left off, with a sound similarly stripped back to acoustic guitar and gentle percussion as it reflects on mortality and death's redemption ("through Maker's death / death is unmade"). "Siren's Song" builds from a slow slide guitar, a suitably haunting melody married to imagery of the ocean that has been so integral to Foreman's writing to build a song of call and desire.
Although all of the songs have a bit of an edge, the writing remains intelligent and at times unexpected. "Fake Your Own Death" challenges the listener to resurrected life: "Fake your own death and come alive / Fake your own death and live the life you've always been afraid of living." "Good for Me" is an introspective assessment of our tendency towards vices, towards "flourescent lights" instead of "the real sun."
Lead single "Your Love Is Enough" feels like a slight non sequitur in the conversation the other songs have built, although it's a strong and deeply reassuring track on its own. This song is the next chapter in what is now a trilogy, the prior installments being "Your Love is Strong" from Foreman's set of seasons EPs and "Let Your Love Be Strong" from Switchfoot's Oh! Gravity. These three songs all explore different facets of God's love for us, as beautifully expressed in the lyrics "I find my soul here in my Maker's arms / finally whole here in my Maker's arms / coming home / Your love is enough."
Closing Thoughts:
When assembling songs that have been written over the course of a decade, in countless different locations in his personal life and his career, a significant challenge was posed to Jon Foreman to make them coherent as a whole, as a narrative. Shadows shows us that he has risen to that challenge admirably, with this EP turning down the lights lit by Sunlight just enough to draw out the more haunting, introspective elements of Foreman's writing. Anticipation remains high for the second half of the series.
Song to Download Now:
"Ghost Machine" (Get it on iTunes here.)
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