Jon Foreman is better known for his band, Switchfoot, who have spent the last three albums telling us that, yes, there IS more to life and we were meant to live it.

But before that, Foreman had a bit more diversity in his lyrics. He sang of love, death, despair, hope, faith, women made of concrete, and not wanting to read the book because it's, "not me".

Longtime fans became frustrated because they saw Foreman not stretching himself as much as they knew he could. Well, now he's taken the time to strip down to a singer/songwriter vibe and show that he's still a gifted lyricist.

The result here is actually two EPs of a planned four, each one with an overarching theme. As you may now have guessed, a lot of these songs are downers (particularly on Winter, but we'll get to that). There are still some bright moments, that are touching despite the simplicity of the music. It's not as big or smooth or poppy as Switchfoot, but it's good.

Now, for the songs, We'll start with the first EP, Fall

The album starts off with a slow guitar strum that takes us into The Cure For Pain, where Foreman effectively sums up his career. He muses about spending the last ten years trying to sing away his doubts and finding that as much as he can chase away, there's always more doubt. Some Sufjan Stevens-esque horns come in during the chorus, maintaining the wistful thoughtfulness of the song as Jon states that despite his inability to stop his doubt, it would be dishonest to pretend that it isn't there, or that he isn't hurting, concluding that despite his search for a cure to pain, he won't ever be able to stop it, so we'll have to deal with it at some point. It's a simple yet poignant start to the album.

The really great thing about the music for Southbound Train is that the way the guitar is being strummed, combined with the violins, and harmonica, actually sounds like the melody is a train, slowly chugging along through the night. It's a song about going home, missing your loved ones, and waiting until you can see them again. There's a bridge melody the builds nicely, painting a poetic picture of his wife as he waits to return to her.

Lord, Save Me From Myself sounds like it would be a cliche CCM number, but have a little faith, Jon is more clever than that. Based around a catchy guitar riff, Jon uses his penchant for odd metaphor to keep things interesting, while his stark honesty is refreshing in a song like this. It's a song where what makes it most charming is how simple it is, yet it doesn't sound derivitive of anything else.

Equally Skilled takes a darker tone, starting out sounding more weary and tired than the other songs thus far. It's more the tone of recent Switchfoot songs, right from the book of Ecclesiastes, making observations about how much evil there is in the world and how both our hands are equally skilled at doing evil. The music is, like all these songs, based around Jon and his guitar, though the music is less memorable here than on the previous tracks. The last verse does a key change and puts a more redemptive and hopeful spin on the idea, waiting for God to return and make everything right, beginning with Jon's own sin. It's an idea that's been done before, but it sounds a whole lot more sincere this time.

The Moon Is A Magnet almost seems unfinished. There's some nice interplay with the guitar and what sounds like a saxophone, with Jon singing what sounds like a rhyming exercise about loneliness and how, "A kiss will betray us all". It's nice, but it just kind of fades out without really feeling resolved. I suppose less is more sometimes, but here it feels like there should be another verse or something.

Fall ends with, My Love Goes Free, a slow piano ballad. The chorus is a simple refrain of, "If you love her, let her go". I assume the song is, then, about a lost love, one who he had to let go because it would have been selfish to make her stay when it was clear she was meant to be elsewhere. It's sad and beautiful, a good way to end an EP about a season of dying.

If you thought the overall sadness and wistful feeling of the previous EP was a downer, get ready, because we're about to start the Winter EP, which deals more directly with death and includes Jon's most devestatingly depressing song ever.

We begin with Learning How To Die, which begins, as with the previous EP, with a slow guitar strum. The lyrics appear to be a conversation between Jon and a woman who is near death. He doesn't want her to talk about the end and how everyone dies, but she insist and states that all along she had been learning how to die. It's not portrayed as a depressing thing, but just a fact of life, the ravages of time mean that from the moment we are born, we are dying. It still manages to be depressing, however.

Behind Your Eyes tries to be more upbeat with a faster guitar riff and a poppier melody. In a continuing theme of death, the song is about a relationship that seems to be dying. It's a little more metaphorical, in that sense, as Jon pleads for her to let him see, "The world behind your eyes". It's a catchy little song, but not as strong as most of the EP.

Are you ready for this? Somebody's Baby is a slow guitar ballad in 6/8 about a homeless girl. Jon paints a tragic picture of her life, being unable to find refuge anywhere, dreaming of Heaven. The idea of the song is that this person is somebody's baby, just like we all are, and she deserves love. I think Jon is taking from the verse about what we do to the least of these, you've done to Christ, which would fit with Jon's writing style. The song takes a really depressing turn when it ends with with her being found dead, and the only identification is her dental records, but because nobody knew her, nobody grieves for her. The way the song is written, it's powerful without manipulating, bringing attention to a need to love even the least of these without sounding self-righteous.

White As Snow is a bit more redemptive, literally, as it's a paraphrase of Psalm 51. The music is more layered than the rest of the album, with a guitar riff, violins, and bells creating melodies to go along with the vocal melody. It serves as a simple hymn, and works in part because of the musical backdrop and part because of Jon's sincere vocal performance.

I Am Still Running is a mid-tempo chug of a song, that goes along steadily, trying to capture the mood of running as Southbound Train did with riding a train. It builds as it goes along, though the lyrics are a little vague and repetitive, which doesn't work as well on an album of songs that were specific and personal. Despite that, it's still a decent song, just not as memorable.

In Love has a slight medieval feel to its' guitar riff. It takes its' time, moving along steadily, like a funeral dirge. Jon's vocals echo over the riff, sounding like a chant. It works to paint a mental picture of a funeral procession, singing as they walk, and is a fitting end to the season of death, with a hint at what's to come.

This is quite a nice start to Jon's quadrilogy, hopefully some of the personal nature of the lyrics here will translate back to Switchfoot and the next two EPs will keep up the momentum started with these two.

Recommended: Yes