By Jonny Bakes
Those who know me will know that my music taste ranges wildly from the extreme reaches of metal through to the poppiest of the pop, which means that you never quite know what you’re going to catch me listening to. But it also means that I’m open to just about anything that reaches the album review bucket at RHQ to see if I can find any hidden gems. This time I’m checking out Switchfoot who are a band that is completely new to me, yet has a significantly large following… well I guess their 12th studio album isn’t too late to try and get in on the hype, right?
Switchfoot have been on the scene since the mid-90s and during this time they have built up a large fanbase who have lapped up their previous 11 albums. A fanbase that is so loyal that the band just couldn’t stay away resulting in an “extended break” that lasted only a year back in 2017. With such an extended career and even a Grammy award under their belts, it’s slightly embarrassing to admit that I’d somehow missed out on them completely, but here we are! The band have been renowned for switching up their style through their career, hell it’s in the name really, so I’m really interested to see what we have in the form of the latest album ‘Interrobang’ that I’ve had land in front of me to review.
First impression is that this is an album that carries a really chilled out and summery vibe. There’s clearly a range of influences at play here which makes it really difficult to tie down to any particular band or genre. Instead, the best I can manage is that it sounds a bit like the general vibes on ÜK radio in the summers of the early 2010s, which I appreciate is both a vague yet oddly specific comparison to make! Potentially you could draw comparison to some of the later works of Weezer too, but only in a relatively loose comparison. ‘Interrobng’ is an album that I’d quite happily label as being “easy listening” in that it was sufficiently mellow to put me in a pretty relaxed state.
‘flourescent’ is possibly my standout track on the album as it carries a pretty distinctive groove once it really gets moving. The inclusion of orchestral strings adds some extra richness to this track as well and almost makes it feel a little bit more grown up, I guess! I can imagine this track going down pretty well at an open-air festival, possibly more of a Kendal Calling type track than something that would rile up the Download crowd.
Considering this was my first introduction to Switchfoot, I feel like I’ve come in at a time that doesn’t necessarily represent the rest of their career as this is a definite change in direction again for the band. But the result is something that is accessible and easy to listen to, and will likely appeal to a pretty wide range of fans as it treads the border between rock and pop nicely. While this is something that I can’t see myself listening to regularly, I can certainly see this appealing to fans of chilled out alt-rock. Perhaps fans of bands such as Modest Mouse, Feeder, Weezer, Pearl Jam or even those who find themselves drawn more to male-led pop music will find themselves a new favourite in ‘Interrobang’.
- ‘Interrobang’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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