Switchfoot

Pitched somewhere between Foo Fighters and Matchbox 20, Switchfoot are now onto their eighth studio album. The band, from San Diego, are apparently named after a surfing phrase and you can certainly imagine their music sound-tracking the crashing of waves against rocks.

For many American bands of this ilk, there is a limit to the musical range, as they often get stuck in two gears, rock-out or ballad. But here Switchfoot have explored a more electronic element, meaning on tracks like the lead single Dark Horses, they can sound a little like Linkin Park, before a great big hook of a sing-along chorus kicks in.

Dave Grohl’s aforementioned band are definitely more of an influence though, especially on the opener Afterlife, with its thumping drum and guitar combination. The Original follows the same recipe, beginning a bit like Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way before a funkier verse than you expect.

Elsewhere the band can sound more like fellow American rockers Vertical Horizon, especially with Blinding Light’s lighter and poppier chorus and on the gentler Restless, where they tread perilously close to bland. The Incubus sound-alike Thrive is better, although you can hear it sound-tracking one of those generic US TV shows.

Highlight though is the band’s paranoid exploration into rock funk with a bit of Chili Peppers evident on the terrific Selling The News; “America listens the story is told/the hard sell, all caps, all bold…begging the question mongering fears/stroking the eye and tickling ears/the truth ain’t just what it appears/we’re selling the news.” If there was more of this Switchfoot would possible rouse greater interest.