Review Summary: A soundtrack comprised of experiences - let the wave take you where it may.
“Everyday you’re alive you change the world,” sings Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman during the album’s fifth track “The World You Want.” A simple line within itself, but something uniquely powerful lays beneath that arrangement of consonants and vowels.
Fading West is something of a triumph, even if, at first listen, the album seems to fall short of expectations.
It should be prefaced that this album at it’s core is undoubtedly a soundtrack of sorts. The accompanying film of the same name provides the context for all of the songs on the record, and the thoughts and feelings behind them; to review one without the other is illogical because they are entirely woven together, forming one entity. Music is always the soundtrack for something, be it certain events, emotions, and struggles. In this case, a film detailing all of the aforementioned is what this music revolves around. This needs to be stressed because a lot would argue that this album should hold up
apart from the film, but one would never separate the music from the emotions or events that shape it - so why should one separate this album from it’s accompanying film?
In all honesty, if completely severed from the film, this album would fail to hold up to a lot of other albums and certainly fail to hold up to the rest of Switchfoot’s discography. Thankfully, this is not the case. The film breathes life into the songs, and in fact, the songs are contingent upon the film. For instance, lead single “Who We Are” is a grooving pop-track that a lot of people were initially turned off to. In the context of the film, however, it paints a beautiful picture of a maturing band dealing with other responsibilities, mainly fatherhood. The children’s voices in the song are their children’s voices, and to them, I’m sure there is nothing more beautiful than to have collaborate on a track with their young children. The track “The World You Want” is a moving story within itself - accompanied by a choir and musicians made up of a group of children and teens in Africa who have lost their parents and loved ones to AIDS. The band has built relationships with these people, and collaborated on music that gives these kids hope where there should be none.
Apart from meeting people across the world, traveling to new places, and struggling to push forward (due to a very scary situation with Jon Foreman’s daughter), this album also reflects the love that the band has for surfing. Tracks like “Saltwater Heart” and closer “Back to the Beginning Again” are there to give you a glimpse of how the band reflects on all of these experiences, and to these stereotypical Southern Californians the nature of the surf and water in general provide a place of solace and reflection amongst the craziness of this life. You still get the fuzzy guitars, the unique vocals, the grooving bass, and the electronic dabbling that Switchfoot is known for, but this time it is toned down to give room for the listener to reflect on not just Switchfoot’s journey, but the listener’s individual journey as well. You may very well not enjoy this album, but that’s ALMOST besides the point. Switchfoot set out not to just write an album that they felt people would enjoy, but rather one that would get people to sit back and relax and think.
Everyday you’re alive you change the world… - Switchfoot wants you to grab a surfboard and sit out in the sonic and visual ocean with them. They want you to be inspired by the people you meet; by the triumphs in your life. They want you to know that because you’re alive you are making a difference in this crazy world. So sit back, and ride this wave wherever it may take you.
