Reviews of all kinds are essentially pointless.
The DCV is well-known to embrace all-things-pointless.*
Therefore, the DCV should do a review of Switchfoot's new album "Hello Hurricane".
* - Speaking of pointless, big shout out to my favorite fall teams: the Browns (31st of 32 in NFL scoring) and the Hurricanes (30th of 30 in NHL scoring). You know what they say: "sometimes the best offense is to just shut it down and play for the #1 draft pick".
Dolberry has been listening to the album on Switchfoot's myspace page for over a week now, then bought it on Lala yesterday morning (where Dolberry is the #1 Switchfoot listener), then went out (in the cold windy rain) and bought a physical copy of it at Best Buy today. So, the neutrality of the forthcoming review could certainly be disputed.
APD was at school for an informal baseball practice. (They have a collapsible cage/net that covers the length of the activities building, allowing for indoor batting practice.) Dolberry cranked the album from the parking lot. It was really cool because the wind was blowing hard and the rain from former Hurricane Ida was coming down in sheets.** The hurricane imagery in the lyrics was easily appreciated from my dry perch in the car.
** - I've been wanting to blog or facebook all day about our rainy weather, but Dolberry felt he couldn't because I made fun of Louisvillians for posting en masse that day it rained a lot in Louisville. I can't stand it any longer though. It rained a ton here today! Over 3 inches in the last 24 hours!! It has rained for 28 straight hours!!! It was way better than Louisville's rain!!!! Awesome!
The album opens w/ the soaring "Needle and Haystack Life" which highlights the improbability ("once in a lifetime") of us all being alive and here on earth and merges quickly into the hard-rocking "Mess of Me", a blistering challenge of man's tendency to look for pharmaceutical solutions to problems that are essentially self-inflicted ("the sickness is myself"). "The Sound", featured in that ubiquitous Blackberry Storm commercial is another solid rocker surrounded by two softer really beautiful songs "Your Love is a Song" and "Enough to Let Me Go". My favorite song on the album is the title track "Hello Hurricane", a melodic and defiant reminder that the storms of life can only slow us down if we let them. "Bullet Soul" lauds activists everywhere ("you can't stand by forever", "don't let 'em blow it apart") and the album closes with a lullaby "Red Eyes". The only two songs that don't grab me much are "Always" and "Sing it Out", probably the two slowest on the disc.
Bottom line: Great album. Go buy it. Or download it. Or stream it.
Rating: 31 stars (of 32).
1 comment:
I really like that album cover. BTW- your rain couldn't have been cooler than our "August louisville flood" or something probably more sensational that the news cast will probably refer to it for the next 20 years.
Kris
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