Top 10 Album Of 2009

Switchfoot returns to form with their seventh full-length album, Hello Hurricane. After the misstep of Oh! Gravity and lead singer Jon Foreman's solo efforts that were critically accepted but made little impression to me, I was afraid that Switchfoot's glory days of dominating popular music were over. Granted, Jon's solo efforts were always music that Switchfoot would never make, but I was still looking for something to grab hold of and shout about. Needless to say, I'm excited to be excited about Switchfoot again. Hello Hurricane is on par with the incredible albums Nothing Is Sound and The Beautiful Letdown. From instant rock classics like "Bullet Soul," "Mess Of Me" and "The Sound" (all of which pull heavy influences from artists like Foo Fighters and Green Day) to soaring anthems like "Free" and "Enough To Let Me Go," the album is overflowing with tracks that will please any pop, alternative and/or rock consumer. The album's crowning achievement is "Your Love Is A Song," easily my favorite track from Switchfoot in a long time. It's simplistic, soaring, layered and instantly familiar and you'll be challenged not to crank up the volume and sing about God's amazing presence symbolized through songwriting at the top of your lungs. This is Switchfoot returning to the top of their game, and it's great to have them back.