Switchfoot: Oh! Gravity. : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On its last two albums, San Diego quintet Switchfoot was a faceless Christian band turning out largely forgettable alt-rock -- albeit largely forgettable alt-rock that managed to go platinum. With Oh! Gravity, Switchfoot up their game on a handful of bright songs. Tunes such as "Amateur Lovers" suggest a ballsier Cheap Trick with a dose of contemporary-radio gloss. Jon Foreman is a decent lyricist -- his earnest philosophical observations are occasionally insightful, and he usually avoids overt preachifying -- but his unremarkable rock-dude voice can't carry lesser, sludgier songs. And forgettability is still a problem: Several tracks -- whether inspirational stuff like "Awakening" or darker cuts like "Circles" -- are about as generic as today's radio rock gets. Beats the crap out of Creed, but still.