Switchfoot – Oh! Gravity / Sony BMG Music Entertainment CD Audio 2006

UPC 828768288023

Oh! Gravity. is the sixth album by the San Diego based alternative rock band Switchfoot. It was released on December 26, 2006. It was Switchfoot's last album released through Columbia Records and Sony BMG (Their next album was released through lowercase people).

To give fans a preview of the new material, Switchfoot released the downloadable single "Dirty Second Hands" to major online music stores on September 26. The album's first radio single, the title song "Oh! Gravity.", was released to radio on October 31, and received moderate airplay on alternative stations across America. In addition, the band provided free streaming audio of both the aforementioned tracks on their MySpace page.

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 18, as the second-highest debut of the week, selling 63,000 copies in its first week. As of June 2010, the album had sold 262,000+ copies.

The highly anticipated sixth album from Switchfoot, contains 12 new tracks written by the band an produced by Tim Palmer (Tin Machine, Pearl Jam, The Cure, Mother Love Bone, U2) & Switchfoot with Grammy winning executive producer Steve Lillywhite. The new album expands Switchffot's sonic palette while at the same time dealing with social issues on songs like the alt-country blues of 'Dirty Second Hands,' in which Jon Foreman sings of the dehumanization that comes with technology. Other politically motivated tracks include 'Oh! Gravity' the title track's generational appeal for love, peace and understanding, 'American Dram,' with its biting truth, 'Awakening,' about trying to recover the innocence of a child in the midst of an ever harsher reality, the sawing alt-country of 'Head Over Heels,' the exotic instrumentation and Middle Eastern flavor of 'Circles,' the REM-esque pulse of '4:12', the lush Brit-pop melodies of 'Yesterdays,' the Echo and the Bunnymen/Smiths influenced 'Burn Out Bright' and Motown sound of 'Amateur Lovers.'

With Oh! Gravity, the San Diego-based modern rock act delivers their best album in years, one that fully reconciles their (Christian) faith with their (considerable) talent. It's diverse but not overly so, and while the production work of veteran Tim Palmer (U2, Tears for Fears) helps provide a radio-friendly sheen atop everything, it's actually their least compromised/mainstream sounding record since the group left the indie scene. From the chiming, revved-up, anthemic title song, which pairs compressed vocals with distorted guitars, to the moody and mildly schizophrenic single "Dirty Second Hands," this album is loud and dirty, the lyrics are thoughtful and plaintive. Lead singer/songwriter Jon Foreman clearly questions the meaning of the band's success, and the role they play in the scheme of things: "Like a puppet on a monetary string/Maybe we've been caught singing/Red, white, blue, and green/But that ain't my American dream." If only Switchfoot's conscience could be implanted in the bodies of other modern rock acts! The world might not necessarily be a better place, but the radio certainly would be. --Mike McGonigal