Issue date: 11/24/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

The romance does not last long as driving bass and beating drums transport the listener into "The Sound," the fourth track on the album. The track starts apprehensively like a sleeping giant, and then kicks into the arena anthem type of song that would make waves of people jump to their feet. Not my favorite track as it seems its focus is more to provide thrills than to make any lyrical or musical connection. In its goal to do that, it is just too bland, nothing fantastic about it.

Another twist follows on the next track "Enough to Let Me Go," a song that sounds more like the pop and adult-contemporary sound of bands like The Fray or Lifehouse. "Free" is a heavy song, both musically and lyrically as Foreman sings "inside this shell is a prison cell." The music accentuates this sentiment perfectly with a dark and chilling vibe.

Almost as if he's fully aware that he just sent you through a dark, somewhat scary tunnel, Foreman makes the following track the light at the end of said tunnel. This is the title track, "Hello Hurricane," and it begins with guitar and a chant of "ohs" that evolve into something positive and optimistic at the 40 second mark, where the bass comes in like rays of sunshine through your bedroom window. "Hello hurricane, you are not enough/ Hello hurricane, you can't silence my love," becomes a message of hope, courage, faith and perseverance amidst the chaos and destruction of life and its thrashing winds. Applicable to our tumultuous lives, especially in these topsy-turvy times, a perfect song to remind you that you are not alone and you must remain strong.

In this album, as in the ones before, it is evident that Switchfoot are singing songs about life, but also of a force more powerful than life. Their lyrics are deeply profound and heartfelt, carried in the arms of a beautiful piano and some barely noticeable but present strings. Foreman's words resonate, "I am always yours," as he laces the song with sentiments of having scars, being a "wretched" man and having a second chance.

Continued...

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