Louder Than The Music

After a brief absence from the music scene, Switchfoot return this November with the release of their seventh album, 'Hello Hurricane'. Their first single from the album is titled 'Mess Of Me', and it was released 'virally' about a month ago. Lead singer Jon Foreman left a disc somewhere, and announced its location on his Twitter page. The instructions were that whoever found it must burn off another copy or two and hide them somewhere else. Slowly, but surely, the single has since spread around the world, creating a colossal amount of hype. It was a very clever thing to do.

But after only two copies made their way to the UK, we were starting to wonder whether we'd ever hear it here at LTTM, until we received a cryptic twitter message and internet link from Jon Foreman himself! So now we have it, and here are some thoughts:

Switchfoot have never been a band that shy away from saying what they truly think, whether it be about politics, religion, or other aspects of Western culture. In the past, this has led them to place a heavy focus upon materialism, eventually causing one reviewer to remark that they were 'virtually beating the subject to death'. With this in mind, it is refreshing to see them change their focus in this new track to society's obsession with the pharmaceutical industry, and how, ultimately, drugs will not save us.'Mess Of Me' is filled with a heavy desire to break out from the mundane routine of this culture, with Foreman frequently crying 'I wanna spend the rest of my life alive!' It's certainly an interesting and challenging subject, arguably a daring one for an opening single! 'Nothing Is Sound' fans will be pleased to hear that the band seems to have returned to exploring darker themes, lyrically at least.

However, in terms of sound, it doesn't really seem like Switchfoot have evolved much since their last release, 'Oh! Gravity', in 2006. Things may have taken a turn for the gritty, but on the basis of this song, it's difficult to detect any kind of reinvention. On the whole, it's a good solid song, and I suppose that there's no need to change a formula that works, but after such a long wait for this record, I do hope that we'll get something a little more diverse when 'Hello Hurricane' turns up in November.

Review by J Alexander

LTTM says: 3.5 out of 5 Stars