Switchfoot ‘Hello Hurricane’ Review

“The storms of this life shatter our plans. They tear through our world and destroy our hopes and dreams. They ruin sunny days, flatten the structures we depend on, and shock our world views. Hello Hurricane is an attempt to sing into the storm. Hello Hurricane is a declaration: you can't silence my love. My plans will fail, the storms of this life will come, and chaos will disrupt even my best intentions, but my love will not be destroyed. Beneath the sound and the fury there is a deeper order still- deeper than life itself. An order that cannot be shaken by the storms of this life. There is a love stronger than the chaos, running underneath us- beckoning us to go below the skin-deep externals, beyond the wind, even into the eye of the storm. Hello Hurricane, you're not enough- you can't silence my love.” —Jon Foreman

It’s been nearly three years since the San Diego-based rockers Switchfoot released the experimental Oh! Gravity. and they are now returning to the spotlight with their latest endeavor, Hello Hurricane, a twelve song masterpiece full of the best songs the band has written so far. I’ve been listening to the album for the past week but it wasn’t until I was driving home this past weekend at night, nothing but headlights for miles, that I realized the full brilliance of this album.

The album opens with the expansive “Needle and Haystack Life” which immediately shows a maturity in lead vocalist and principal songwriter Jon Foreman’s writing. Always know for his deep and poignant, lyrics, Foreman’s writing on this album takes that even further tackling themes with a thoughtfulness we haven’t quite seen before. “This song makes me think of abundant, overflowing life,” comments Foreman, “The math involved for life to be possible at all is staggering. Let alone beauty. Love. Joy. Forgiveness. To hold someone in your arms is to hold a living, breathing miracle. At any age, this life is a gift.”

“Mess of Me” follows and is exactly the style of song we’ve come to expect from Switchfoot. Loud guitars, a stirring melody, and reflective lyrics make this class Switchfoot as it tackles the theme of prescriptive drugs. Follows is the ballad “Your Love is a Song,” the final song in a trilogy (also including “Let Your Love Be Strong” from Oh! Gravity. and “Your Love is Strong” from Foreman’s solo album) that could have easily fit on one of Foreman’s solo albums. Another rocker “The Sound” follows which will surely be a fan favorite and a concert staple.

“Enough to Let Me Go” is an interesting look at love and loss and Foreman’s ability to parallel this concept with breathing is another prime example of his unique thinking process that make his songs all the more poignant. The title track captures the theme of the entire record in it’s brilliant chorus: “hello hurricane, you’re not enough / hello hurricane, you can’t silence my love / I’ve got doors and windows boarded up / all your dead end fury is not enough / you can’t silence my love.”

The second half of the album slows it down a bit with the vertically focused “Always” which showcases a different style of writing we haven’t seen much from the band. One of my personal favorites, “Yet” has an old, analog feel and a steady beat before picking up at the close. The album closes with arguably two of the band’s strongest tracks of all time. The spiritual “Sing it Out” slowly builds to an epic close before the album closes out with the reflective “Red Eyes.” As the final song fades away, the chorus of “Needle and Haystack Life” quietly plays, blending the two choruses together as if to wrap the album and it’s overarching theme into one proverbial bow.

Hello Hurricane is musically diverse, lyrically relevant, and thematically substantial. In an interview I heard, Foreman said that I had written over eighty tracks for this album and that the way they’d decide which songs made the cut is by asking themselves “Is this a song we would want to die singing?” That’s a heavy requirement and a high bar to reach, but after a few listens, I am confident that these San Diego boys have achieved it. Every song is perfect on its own yet it all fits together into one fantastic message.

And that message, in Foreman’s words is:

“Yes, I will die one day—of this I am certain. But I'm not dead yet! No, tonight there is breath in my lungs- pushing, pulsing, yearning to break free... I will dream, for dreams are the seeds of what may be. I will wonder, for without wonder, how could life be wonderful? And I will sing.

Yes, until my pending death I will sing. In the face of indifference, I will sing. In the face of adversity, I will sing. I will sing about the pain. I will sing about the mystery. I will sing of the hope, the cage, the bullet, the winter, the dreamer. I will sing of all of these. I've seen miracles there in your eyes. It's no accident we're here tonight. We are once in a lifetime.”

Five Years

What does one write on their blog that has fallen to the wayside over the past couple months to celebrate it’s fifth anniversary? Do you write anything at all? Do you even mention that you’ve been meagerly slaving away for five years on a little blog that maybe no one reads? Is five years even worth celebrating? What’s the average lifespan of a blog these days anyway?

It could be pure coincidence but it was just last week that I started feeling the itch to get back into writing on a regular basis, not even realizing this anniversary was before us.

And last year, I made a big fuss about changing the direction of the blog and focusing on quality over quantity. Focusing on actual writing. Unfortunately, over the past few months, I think both have suffered.

But here’s the thing I’m discovering: there are a few subjects that I am completely, 100% passionate about (design, art, typography, film, spirituality, creativity, history to name a few). These subjects come up in conversation and I will go on and on, without filter, sharing everything I know or am thinking about regarding said topic. This blog use to be my forum to discuss these things, to share my passions with others, I’d like to get back to that.

John Gruber and Merlin Mann’s talk from SXSW this past year on blogging so utterly changed my ideas of online publishing that I started to remember the purpose of this blog in the first place. You should listen to that talk. If you take one thing away from it, it’s this simple formula on how to be a successful blogger (or writer or artist or thing-maker): obsession times voice. Find your obsession. Find your voice. And then go make really cool stuff.

I’m not going to commit to anything. I’m not going to lie to you and say I have some great posts coming over the next few weeks. Because I don’t. I don’t know where the blog is headed or what is coming next. All I really know is I’ve stuck with this thing for five years and I’m not finished talking about the stuff that gets me excited.

Because what it comes down to is that the people who read this blog, for the most part, are people like me. We share the same interests and passions and maybe you point out typefaces when walking down the road like I do. So if something gets me excited, chances are, it’ll make you excited too. And we’re all on this journey together, I think. Thanks for sticking around listening to me gush about my obscure and sometimes random interests for the last five years. I’m looking forward to keep sharing the things that make me excited with you.

This Is It

When Michael Jackson died in June, just shy of his fiftieth birthday, the world lost mourned the loss of arguably the greatest entertainer of our time. Maybe even the greatest entertainer of all time. Personal problems and molestation cases stole the spotlight from his talent in his final years of his life making his death all the more untimely. Thankfully, the new documentary, This Is It, succeeds in returning the crown to the King of Pop and returning the humanity to a trouble artist.

Filmed during the rehearsals for what was scheduled to be Jackson’s 50-concert come-back tour, This Is It focuses solely on the creative process of putting these events together and becomes a fascinating portrait of an artist at work.

What one will first notice in the film is the intense passion of an artist at work. Many of the final photos and footage we are seen of Jackson is a weak, almost frail individual, often walking to and from courthouses; someone struggling to get by. This image is quickly forgotten within the opening moments of the film as we a Jackson full of energy who comes alive when the music starts.

What was most fascinating to me, however, was the intimate look at Jackson’s creative process and strict attention to detail. It’s the candid moments where he’s talking to the musicians about how the music must sound or when he’s sitting in the production room watching footage for a background video and commenting on how the lighting feels off. Almost taking on the role of an auteur, having his hand in every aspect of the show—from the music to the choreography to the light design to stage set. Jackson had opinions about it all and fought respectfully to see his visions come to fruition.

There is no doubt in my mind that this concert would have been unlike anything we have ever seen before. An epic stage set complete with videos, lighting effects, choreography, a full band, and of course the music, this could be one of the most designed concerts in history—this would not have been a concert you simply go and see, this would be a concert you would go and experience with all your senses. Every detail was planned to perfection.

This is not simply a biopic of the world’s greatest entertainer, this is a true inside look at an artist at work. At what goes through the mind of a true musical genius and the work he did to make sure his art could be shared with others.

Absent was the controversy and the questions surrounding his death and the split public perception of the creative genius or the troubled pedophile. This Is It is how I’d hope the future gets to see Michael Jackson: an incredibly talented, passionate artist and performer. Look at Michelangelo or Van Gogh or Shakespeare, these individuals had extremely troubled personal lives, but the legacy they’ve left behind—the things people remember them for—is their art. I wish the same for Michael Jackson.

This Is It does a great job of making sure that legacy lives on.

Recent Photography

Shortly after I moved to Philadelphia for a brief time in 2007, I went on many photographic excursions to help get acquainted with my new city. I spent a Saturday a few weeks ago doing the same thing for my most recent town. There is a strong contrast of the rural farmlands I'm surrounded by now than when I was in Philly but that doesn't mean there is less to photograph.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this set turned out and think I was able to experiment with some different editing styles yet still capture a sort of rural/farmland/Autumnal feel. As I Twittered earlier today, I also noticed how quickly I've switched exclusively to shooting RAW after really just starting to dabble in it earlier this year. I have not shot JPG since. I can't recommend it enough when you are doing heavy editing and processing to your photos. The flexibility is just perfect.

Here are a few of my favorite recent photos, and as always, there are more on Flickr.

Designer For Hire

After a very successful summer of freelancing work and in the final stages of a few projects, I'm currently looking to take on some more projects from now till the end of the year.

I'm looking for work in print design, web design, logo/identity development, product design, illustration, and some photography. If you are an individual or business in need of design work or a design firm looking for a contractor for extra projects, please feel free to contact me or visit the For Hire page so we can begin discussing your project.

I'm looking forward to the possibility of working with you over the next few months!

Where The Wild Things Are

Years in the making and continuously delayed, Spike Jonze’s adapation of Where The Wild Things Are is finally here and after seeing it opening night, I can confidently say it was worth the wait. In my “mini-review” on Twitter immediately following the film I said: “‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is sad, heart-breaking, disturbing, real, funny, beautiful, and hopeful” and in reality, that is all that really needs to be said, but I think that would be a disservice to Mr. Jonze’s incredible work of art. And that is what this movie is: a work of art.

The story follows young Max, the son of a busy, and often distracted single mom. Max spends his days alone letting his imagination run wild while building snow igloos in the front yard and forts in his bedroom. One night, when simply wanting some attention from his mom and sister, Max’s anger takes over him. As his mother tries to punish him, he runs outside, escaping his world. Before we know it, he’s in a small sailboat sailing to the world where the Wild Things are.

He is quickly made their king and they set out to build “a place where only the things they want to have happen happen.” Conflict, jealousy, struggle, competition and pain follow and Max starts to see his family is not the only one that is broken and painful. It’s a hard lesson for both Max and the Wild Things to learn but the movie handles it in an innocent, childlike way.

I think that is what really makes the film work so well. The entire film feels like being a kid without feeling “childish.” Watching the movie, I couldn’t help but look back at my childhood and the things I did growing up. Throughout the film, there is this innocence and childlike wonder that gives you a hopeful feeling despite the distraction and brokenness that surround the main characters.

One can’t comment on the film without first admiring the amazing cinematography. The world created in the film is both real and dreamlike. It feels airy and cheerful, light and fun, all the while feeling baron and empty at the same time. Jonze mixes crazy handheld shots with slow pans and still shots making a diverse viewing experience that captures the life of a child.

The movie was much sadder than I was expecting yet I still left the theater hopeful and optimistic. This is the kind of film where you can be laughing at on scene and crying at the next and when you realize this, you realize this is not simply a story of a boy and his imagination, this is the story of life. Of what it means to be human.

New Work: Various Personal Pieces

The past few weeks have been very light on freelance work allowing me to focus some energies on some personal experiments and projects. When I was just getting started in design and learning the programs, most of my time was spent approaching design from a more art perspective, meaning I had no clients, no requirements, no limitations, working much like an artist, simply trying to express himself.

Over the years, I've found a lot of the work I create during these personal projects starts to find it's way into my professional projects and have been a good indicator of where my "visual style" is heading in a similar way to how Stefan Sagmeister's projects are birthed from his sabbaticals.

Many times, this personal work never sees the light of day and only rarely appears in my portfolio, so I thought it'd be nice to share some of the pieces I've been creating the past few weeks. I definitely see an evolution in both my process and my finished pieces as my style grows and develops. I also want to note that Relient K's latest album Forget and Not Slow Down has been incredibly inspiring to me and has affected me more than any album has in quite a few years. It's so incredibly honest and raw and emotional that I can't help but create work that responds to it.

The work here is a mix of illustration, photography, and typographic pieces and I'm really excited about all of it. I definitely see my work approaching this style more and more and it's very cool to see the progression.