Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Hurricanes.
Each of these words holds negative connotations of chaotic destruction. Naming an album after a natural disaster is a bold move in order to tie music with something big, something that will really make its presence known — or at least that’s the hope. Switchfoot’s latest album, Hello Hurricane, holds all these promises, but fails to deliver.
Since Switchfoot’s popular songs “Dare You to Move” and “Meant to Live” from 2003’s release A Beautiful Letdown, the band has laid low on the radar, releasing two more albums but without any big hits like those of A Beautiful Letdown.
So the band hopes to change that with Hello Hurricane, and bursting energy and feel-good lyrics like those in “Needle and Haystack Life” start the album out on the right track with an upbeat tempo and uplifting words.
Switching up the feeling entirely — but doing so with success — is “Mess of Me,” which has gritty guitars and lots of distortion. Even lead singer Jon Foreman’s voice is rough, and the lyrics reflect these elements: “I am my own affliction/ I am my own disease/ There ain’t no drug that they could sell/ Ah there ain’t no drugs to make me well.” This harder rocking song is unexpected, but it shines through as one of the best tracks on the album because of it. Also helping the cause is the unpolished edge of Foreman’s voice and the messy-sounding instrumentals.
“Mess of Me” begins the back-and-forth, hard-and-soft element that the album fights with. Switchfoot just couldn’t pick one side. The album goes from hard to sweet with “Your Love is a Song,” and back to dirty with “The Sound (John M. Perkins’ Blues).” Instead of creating a cohesive album, the listener’s emotions are constantly changing from one song to the next. It’s a move that initially works in Switchfoot’s favor since it adds an element of surprise.
The first half of the album is capped off with the title track “Hello Hurricane,” another bright spot on the album. This song, according to the band in an interview with The North County Times, is inspired by the band’s work with Habitat for Humanity in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The hope the victims showed, rather than anger, fueled the message of the song. The positive, hopeful, yet haunting track is memorable.
After this, things get boring. Although the back-and-forth pattern continues, the songs give way to monotony. Each song has potential and builds up steam, but then goes nowhere. It’s as if Switchfoot wanted to do big things with the songs, but didn’t know quite how to get there. The worst of these offenders is “Yet,” which slowly builds by adding instruments as it progresses, and right where you expect an explosion of sound and energy, it goes right back down to where it was, leaving listeners with a repetitive, sleepy song that’s been done before.
The flip-flop of emotions keeps Hello Hurricane interesting, but it can only do so much. While some songs stand out and have great musical moments, others take a turn for the worse — unmemorable and unimaginative. For such powerful imagery, Switchfoot fails to shake things up on Hello Hurricane, and ends up delivering a mild storm instead of the massive hurricane they were hoping for.
3 stars out of 5.
