After twelve years of crowd wowing and multiple millions of albums sold as lead singer of the band Switchfoot, Jon Foreman has released a series of low-key, indie style EPs named after the four seasons. The latest installments, Spring and Summer, were released together June 2008. I was very excited when a friend introduced me to Foreman’s music, and my enthusiasm has only grown after listening to his most recent dual-album release.
Different moods, instruments, and messages are introduced nearly every time you punch the CD player’s forward arrow – so much so that a car passenger asked if we were listening to the same artist while Spring and Summer played in my car. The tendency of the tracks to differ, however, did nothing to compromise my enjoyment of Foreman’s unique artistry.
Whereas some albums can only be enjoyed in particular circumstances, Spring and Summer possess a versatility that can ensure extended play-time on the listener’s iPod or CD player. “Love Isn’t Made,” the second track on the Spring EP, conjures images of a disillusioned or lonely lover driving in dismal showers around a deserted city. More than once I’ve felt I could empathize with this song during periods of strife or heart break.
Skip two tracks ahead of “Love Isn’t Made” and you’ll encounter “Baptize My Mind,” a song whose bright tones provide a joyful melody to lyrics with practical theological implications. “Hey, baptize my mind. Hey, baptize my eyes,” the singer pleads. Foreman expresses the humble upward cry of a man who desires to live a righteous life but recognizes the inability to do so on his own.
If Spring is a storehouse rich in sound, lyrics, and innovation, Summer is no less well-off. In it Foreman touches on vanity, mortality, justice, and hope. Surprisingly, the ambiguity that one expects to surround these subjects is absent in his musical prose, which range from joy or poignancy to down-right grittiness. It was by listening to a copy of Summer I received from a friend that I discovered one of my favorite songs, “Resurrect Me.”
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