Radiohead
is unquestionably one of the greater bands to come out of
the 90s. I'm not comparing Switchfoot to Radiohead's sound
necessarily but the concept. The reason why Radiohead is so
great is because they experiment. Radiohead is like Tool,
in that sense because their record makes an overall statement
with unique individual songs that fit together to make a whole.
Switchfoot
didn't make the mistake of copying Radiohead's sound; they
got it right and used the concept. A little synth, some guitar,
and the light delicate vocals of Jonathan Foreman provide
a perfect base to build a great record on. This album is full
of catchy light pop tunes comprised of creative song structure
as well intelligent, poetic lyrics that cry back to the U2
days prior to Bono's save the world crusade. Variety is the
key to this records success. Meant to Live starts with an
almost out of tune guitar hook that builds to a multi-layer
melody. That's the first sign that this record is worth the
time of day - complexity. From here, an album can go in various
directions. It might have only one good song and proceed to
suck, or it could just repeat the same song in a different
key with different lyrics for the duration of the cd. Then
there is the rare concept of expansion. Switchfoot expands.
I could go through all the songs pointing out the strengths
but that would ruin the surprise.
Overall
it's a good feeling uplifting type record, but can you really
expect anything less from these talented Christian rock brothers?
|