Switchfoot has obviously wrestled with similar temptations. Oh! Gravity., the group's sixth release, expresses band members' determination not to let materialism shape their souls. Instead, they're keen to reflect on what it means to live with integrity in a fractured world.

Like 2005's Nothing Is Sound, Gravity is informed by the band's biblical faith—even if that faith is rarely the direct subject of a given song. Still, the band is clearly striving for something other than the trappings of success that our culture values—and challenging listeners to do the same.

The Weight of Gravity
"American Dream" may well be the song that leads this moral charge as it censures the gospel of materialism: "When success is equated with excess/The ambition for excess wrecks us." Then, without lapsing into self-righteousness, following tracks question the world's prevailing strategies for finding meaning. "Dirty Second Hands," for example, questions a culture that inordinately values youthfulness ("In the land of the free/And the home of the remedy/The old clock is a thief/With dirty second hands").

Likewise, "Awakening" describes an exhausted worker ("Last week saw me living for nothing but deadlines") who realizes there's more to life than just the daily grind ("I want to live like I know what I'm leaving/I want a heart that I know is beating"). As I listened, lyrics like these kept sneaking past my defenses and jarring my soul. "Circles" did it by illustrating how a life of nothing but work ultimately feels empty ("Another day/Another sunrise/Another factory call/... Am I alive?/Am I on purpose?"). The result of such a lifestyle takes form on "Amateur Lovers," which tells us about people desperate for love who don't know how to care for each other ("Everyone I know needs love like drugs/... We don't know what we're doing/We do it again/We're just amateur lovers/With amateur friends").

I don't think Gravity is intended to be a concept album. But things take a definite thematic change in its second half. Whereas the first six songs focus on our culture's problems, the last six focus more on relationships and hope. The epic "Faust, Midas and Myself" narrates the tale of a man who, in a dream, is tempted to trade his soul for "everything you've seen/Everything you'll need." In the end, he decides, "I wanted to wake up again/Without a touch of gold." And when he does so, he's able to see that "what was once routine was now the perfect joy." "Head Over Heels" celebrates the joy of lifelong love ("In this life, you're my only one"), while "Yesterday" looks forward to being reunited with a deceased friend in heaven ("Until I'm with you, I'll carry on").

Illustrating Truth ... Without Preaching It
Compared to Nothing Is Sound, Switchfoot's latest feels less melancholy and more upbeat. Whereas the previous album has one track I have some serious concerns about ("The Fatal Wound"), Gravity has no similar problems. And I'm not the only one who thinks the overall emotional tenor has shifted somewhat between these two albums. Even Jon Foreman hints that the last album was a bit of a downer. He recently told an interviewer, "I'm reminded every night of what I've written. And I noticed with Nothing Is Sound [that] singing a depressing song night after night can wear you out. Depressing songs need to be written, but joyful songs also need to be sung."

The only spot on this album I felt might be misapplied is the indefinite opening of "Oh! Gravity.," which says, "There's a fracture in the color bar/In the backseat of a parked car/By the liquor store where the streetlight/Keep you company 'til the next night." In the context of this song, which focuses on the tragedy of unresolved conflict, it's hard to know exactly what these lyrics actually mean. Perhaps Switchfoot is singing about those who use alcohol and sex to cope with life's tensions.

On a broader philosophical note, Foreman continues to talk about how his (and other band members') faith meshes with their songs. "We are not trying to fly the flag of Christendom, and we never have attempted to lift that flag. ... I've seen very few people get up on stage in rock 'n' roll who yell and stamp their feet for the name of Christ and do it in a way that I feel like is the gospel. So when people come to us with books and microphones and cameras, and they want us to cheer the cheer and chant the chant, it's something I don't feel comfortable doing." Thus, his songs generally reflect biblical truth without preaching it explicitly.

Some listeners will understand that Switchfoot's perspective is grounded in a biblical worldview. But even those who don't know where the band is coming from, exactly, will be challenged by Gravity to reassess what's most important to them—and to consider the idea that there's more to this life than simply working hard to accumulate stuff.