Anything But That!
It seems Ziffy boy has a real aversion to doing his homework. Besides, turning someone into a hexapus is a heck of a lot more fun that sifting through Nergon’s notes, I’m sure.
I managed to pick up the new Switchfoot CD that just released on December 26th, called “Oh! Gravity.” You know, when “Nothing is Sound” came out, I fully expected it to be a flop. I don’t mean to be a naysayer, but “The Beautiful Letdown” was a masterpiece CD.  And the history of rock tells us time and time again that when a band has a breakout hit album, they become stunned and flounder in the studio for their next offering, then call it misunderstood art. Well, this didn’t happen with “Nothing is Sound”, that CD was every bit as good as the previous one. So again, I half expected “Oh! Gravity.” to be the fall from grace that must at some point come. Well it is very far from it, I’m happy to say. I do think it’s VERY different from the past two albums in that “Oh! Gravity.” is actually a raw, punk rock album from this band that I have repeatedly heard referred to as a punk band. But they kept churning out this glossy, heavily produced pop/punk/rock. Not this time. Where the others sounded like hours and hours had been poured into each song, this one sounds as if most tracks were rehearsed maybe a couple of times and then the recorded take just kind of magically came together without much effort. Now I’m just saying that it SOUNDS that way. They may very well have poured over these tracks, but they really have made it sound easy. And it still works wonderfully. The first two tracks, “Oh! Gravity.” and “American Dream” are heavy, up-tempo songs that really get the disc started out right. They’re easy first favorites, but after giving the whole thing a good listen, I’d have to point out “Amateur Lovers” and “Yesterdays” as personal highlights. Anyway, I highly recommend giving it a chance. I doubt you’d be disappointed.
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:52 am
Cool perspective on the new disc sir! I have been listening to it and trying to stay objective and not compare it to their previous stuff (since I have absolutely loved everything but “Learning to Breathe”) considering how different it is. I think you are correct in saying that it only “SOUNDS” like it is thrown together; especially considering that it was produced by Tim Palmer (Tin Machine, Pearl Jam, The Cure, Mother Love Bone, U2) and Grammy-winning executive producer Steve Lillywhite. Check out the review on Amazon. They do a pretty good job of it.
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hey, cool, you’ve been listening to it, too! That’s really cool it was produced by this guy who produced Pearl Jam cuz there were a few times listening to this CD that Pearl Jam came to mind. There would be an unexpected turn in melody or something and I immediately thought of them. I used to REALLY like Pearl Jam…not so much any more.
Thanks for the chime in!
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 am
I have to add, too, that “Amateur Lovers” sounds like they really had a lot of fun recording it, kind of like “Roxanne” by the Police. You can just picture Sting belting out “ROOOXANNE!!” with a big grin on his face. This song seems the same way, you can just see these guys having a ball recording it…”We dunno what we’re DOIN’!!”
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:07 am
humm, I would have put all the reasearch into a nice DvD format.(or lazer Disk, baybe Beta) Maybe have two of them, like seasons, hummm like “Year one: Understanding humans”, then “Year Two: Why am I here?”
Then Nergon can charge 100x the cost to make them to the buyers…hey I think I have something here…….
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:37 am
LOL, too funny. Maybe something like The First 2 Weeks: Understanding Men. And then Four Decades and Counting: Understanding Women….
JUST KIDDING!!!