To me, Switchfoot is the biggest little band ever. When I saw them live, they played in a small, cramped, and extremely humid club in front of no more than 200 people. Yet their sound is tailor-made for arenas. And while they have played in arenas and amphitheaters in the past, I always felt as if Switchfoot has never gotten the grand attention they deserve. There is definitely a huge, U2-like beast awaiting in Switchfoot, and I feel that in the band's seventh full-length album "Hello Hurricane", that beast has been unleashed.
Switchfoot's previous albums, namely "Learning to Breathe" and "The Beautiful Letdown" show that the guys can write huge and catchy hooks while having deep and meaningful lyrics to back them up. In what is the first of a planned quartet of albums, "Hello Hurricane" cranks up the epicness while not compromising the band's sound or their integrity. Simply put, "Hello Hurricane" ranks up with "The Beautiful Letdown" as the best Switchfoot album and easily ranks as one of the best albums of the year.
Throughout the whole album, Jon Foreman's vocals are a powerful and precise as ever, and are backed by huge riffs and a rock-solid rhythm section provided by brother Tim Foreman and longtime drummer Chad Butler. The record begins with the U2-inspired "Needle and Haystack Life" and maintains that level of epic all the way to the end. Songs like "Mess of Me" and "Free" show that Switchfoot are not afraid to get heavy (the latter song sounding a bit like Black Sabbath's "War Pigs"), while cuts like "Your Love is a Song" and "Always" are ballads as only Switchfoot could write. The title track is another standout song, as it moves along as a brisk pace and some of the best lyrics in the whole album. The closer is pure Switchfoot, cranking back into U2-mode and not letting up until the final note.
Overall, while this might not be the best album of the year, it certainly is the best Switchfoot album in a long time and is sure to please die-hard and casual fans alike. "Hello Hurricane" is a definite improvement over the last few Switchfoot albums and contains some truly great songs. I can't wait until the follow-ups arrive to see where the band goes next after this great achievement.
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