New albums of significance coming out today:
• The Juliana Theory - Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat
• Switchfoot - Nothing is Sound
I don’t know of any others off the top of my head. I just got the new Juliana Theory album, limited edition CD, and strangely underwhelming T-shirt in the mail today. Gotta love preorder. I’m rather impressed with the music for only having listened to once. The DVD should be good, too, but I haven’t had time to throw it in yet. The t-shirt is kinda weird… black lettering of the band name on a black t-shirt. I think it’s supposed to be subliminal, but I’m already not looking forward to the questions people will ask me about it.
“So what’s your shirt say? I can’t read it. Why is it in black? Is it that way on purpose? What’s the point of having black on black? I don’t get it.”
That and it’s just… too minimalistic. I like minimalism, but this shirt… doesn’t make me happy or excite my artistic sensibilities or anything of that nature.
So Jake, Sean, have you guys listened to the new Switchfoot (iTunes) yet? I’ve only heard the song “Stars” as they’ve been playing it on the local alternative rock station and the Christian rock station. It’s a good song. If you’ve got the album, throw down a brief review in the comments. Jesus Freak Hideout gave the album a good review as it received 4.5/5.0 stars.
“I pledge alegiance to a country without borders, without politicians…” — Switchfoot - Politicians
Update: Listen to the entirety of the new Switchfoot CD — “Nothing is Sound” — at AOL Music.
Boy howdy.
Sean preordered the CD and it actually came on the 12th. He exercised a great amount of self control and waited until midnight when there was a Switchfoot listening party, which may or may not have involved D’Leons. Alright, burritos were involved. It somehow added to the experience…
Oh… D’Leons… I still want to know how those burritos got their flavor. I tell you, they were delicious, and now you’ve given me a hunger I can’t fill at Chipotle or Qdoba. Dang it!
That was a sweet party. The album, from a Switchfoot maniac perpective, is incredible. The JFH review was pretty accurate, the sound is fuller and not “stripped down” but it has a very honest, raw feel to it becuase they recorded on the road. It’s more agressive than their previous albums but that is fine becuase they rock hard and the guitar riffs are great. Also, the dissonance that The Beautiful Letdown lacked is back, especially on tracks like “The Blues” and “Daisy.” I got the DualDisk which is cool becuase it has a really informative, funny DVD about the recording of “Nothing is Sound” and it also has a 5.1 surround version of the album.
Highlights:
-guitar riff on “Stars”
-references to Ecclesiastes all over the record, especially on “Happy is a Yuppie Word”
-first line of “Easier than Love”: “Sex is currency”
-the before mentioned dissonance on “The Blues” and “Daisy”
-harmoncia on “The Fatal Wound,” sweet mother of pearl how sexy it that!
-the entire song “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine,” it’s my favorite right now, I can’t get it out of my head, so good
-commentary by Jon Foreman about the making of the record
How do you get html tags to work in the comments section?
eh, html isn’t enabled… anti-spammer sort of feature, y’know? if you’ve got a link email it to me and I’ll post it.