what's in my iPod? - Switchfoot: Hello Hurricane

This album is playing in my iPod because I think it is brilliant. I love the sound. I's got great beats and hooks that have me singing these songs all day long. This is music you can feel. I'm diggin' it...

I would say that this album is their best ever.

But it doesn't only have an awesome sound. This is the songs from their soul! Jon Foreman said, "I feel like with this record, the motto was, 'What are the songs you want to die singing?'" & he also said these are the songs "we want to sing for the rest of our lives." No wonder this is their best record yet. This is like their "manifesto".

*Even if you don't like their music you have got to love Jon Foreman's heart! In his interview with Relevant (my fav mag) recently he said = "I try to remind myself that I am here to serve people." Not the normal kind of talk you hear from a rock star. Neither is this = "I think the point is ultimately not about me. And if you approach the world with the apron of a servant, then you are allowed to go places that you can't go if you approach it with the crown of a king." You gotta respect a guy with a heart like this.

I wrote about Jon Foreman and Switchfoot being in my iPod way back HERE. Check out that post where I talk about remembering listening to Switchfoot's 1st every CD way back in the day - Legend of the Chin. That was back when it was just 3 of them & they were just a surfer band. I also remember buying their very 1st ever single - New Way To Be Human.

In my opinion the first 4 tracks on the album are awesome! They jump out at you right away and stick with you. My favorite song of all is track #3 - Your Love is a Song
To me it's an emotional worship song. It's a song you feel. The music joins beautifully with the lyrics:
"Your love is a symphony/ All around me/ Running through me
Your love is a melody/ Underneath me/ Running to me
Oh, your love is a song/ your love is a song
Your love is a song/ Yeah, yeah/ Your love is my remedy."
And that's the song I've been singing in my head lately... a lot. I'm overwhelmed with God's love through the truth in that song.

I also really love track #4 = "The Sound [John M. Perkins' Blues]". I've been reading some of John M. Perkins over this past year. Before that I had never even heard of this guy. It's definitely a rockin' song. A lot like U2's rockin' stuff. Beautiful rockin' lyrics too:
"This is the sound Of a heartbeat
This is the sound From the discontented mouths
Of a haunted nation
We are the voice of breaking down
Can you hear me?
This is the sound Of the desperation bound
By our own collision We are the voice of breaking down

The static comes alive Beneath the broken skies
John Perkins said it right Love is the final fight
Let it rise above/ Rise above
There is no song Louder than love"

Right on, Switchfoot - no song louder than love. no doubt.
Mess of Me is a great song about someone simply making a mess of their life. No specifics because we all make messes of our lives in different ways. but their bottom line is:
"There ain't no drug [to fix things...]
The sickness is myself [depravity]
I made a mess of me
I wanna get back the rest of me
I've made a mess of me
I wanna spend the rest of my life alive!"

Needle in a Haystack Life is the 1st song on the album. It's got a great sound. honestly - this song & many others have a big time U2 feel to them. I really really like it.
"In this needle and haystack life/ I found miracles there in your eyes
It's no accident we're here tonight/ We are once in a lifetime
All is not lost/ All is not lost
Become who you are
It happens once in a lifetime"
 
Possibly one of the most awesome sounding and catchiest songs on the album is "Free" = guaranteed to make your head & body move with the groovin' beat.
"Free, come set me free/ Down on my knees
I still believe You can save me from me
Come set me free/ Come set me free
Inside this shell There's a prison cell"


The title song is Hello Hurricane & Foreman was inspired to write this song while he was serving victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I love the message of this song, not to mention it is definitely has a popular sound that is already catching on across radio waves.
It's so awesome because Foreman is basically talking smack to the hurricanes of life. The things that come along to throw us off. We can't control them, but we definitely have control of how we respond to them. I love this:
"Every thing I have I count as loss/ Everything I have is stripped away
Before I started building/ I counted up these costs
There's nothing left for you to take away
Hello hurricane You're not enough
Hello hurricane You can't silence my love
I've got doors and windows Boarded up
All your dead end fury is Not enough
You can't silence my love"

And some songs honestly remind me of the sound the band had back in the day. Like on Bullet Soul which has some inspiring/rise up/revolutionary youth lyrics to it too...
I want to sing one for all the dreamers/ I'm singing this one for the sparks
Here's one for the friction makers/ We are the bleeding hearts
Don't care whoever you are/ We rise and fall together
Our hearts still beat below/ You can't stand by forever
You're a kid with a bullet soul
Are you ready to go?
I want to turn up the radiation/ I want to glow in the dark
Love is the one true innovation/ Love is the only art
Don't let 'em blow it apart
Are you ready to go? 

Sing It Out is a beautiful desperation song. A great lyric & sound for when you feel like you're at the end of your rope... and once again you fall into the arms of God.
"I'm on the run/ I'm on the ropes this time
Where is my song?/ I've lost the song of my soul tonight
Sing it out/ Sing it out
Take what is left of me/ And make it a melody
Sing it out/ Sing out loud
I can't the words to sing/ You'd be my remedy
My song/ My song
I'll sing with what's left of me

I'm holding on/ I'm holding on to you
My world is wrong/ My world is a lie that's come true
And I fall in love/ With the ones that run me through
When all along all I need is you
Sing it out..." 

Great stuff from this awesome band with a big heart! If you don't already have Hello Hurricane go get it NOW! You can buy it anywhere & you can download it from Amazon right HERE for only $7.99

What do you think of this latest stuff from Foreman & Switchfoot?