As far as Switchfoot albums go, there seems to be an either or thing going on. The album is going to either be great in that you can listen to the album from start to finish without skipping a single track, or the album will have a few good tracks on it and the rest are just barely so-so. The Legend of Chin, Learning to Breathe, and Nothing is Sound fall into the latter category. It is not that these albums are not good, or that that band is not good, just that quite simply the band does not live to their potential on them.

Fear not though, because Oh! Gravity, falls into the former of the the two categories. From the start of the first track (which happens to be the title track), you just get the sensation that this is going to be a good album and there is no disappointment of that feeling. The classic Switchfoot sound is here, but it has a slightly more raw/less produced feel to it, which in my opinion is a good thing since this band has always been good when they try not to over do it. Simplicity works best with Switchfoot songs since for the most part they are pop songs.

I think the highlights of this album are “American Dream” and “Dirty Second Hands” mainly because I like the message and sound of both of these songs, they just seem to stand out in my head hours after listening to the album. “Dirty Second Hands” seems to have very Depeche Mode feel to it (I’m thinking Exciter album) but without copying the Depeche Mode sound.

Overall, Oh! Gravity is a great record. And even though it is only 2 records after Beautiful Letdown it is just as good if not better. Plus at $9.99 from Amazon.com, it is not a bad deal at all.

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