Jon Foreman

Like the season, Spring (the penultimate entry in Jon Foreman’s four-part musical diary) is a refreshing and inviting project, allowing us to once again experience the more introspective side of Switchfoot’s front man. No thundering drums or machine-gun guitar riffs here – just heartfelt thoughts, emotions, and poetry set in simple melodies, and sung in Foreman’s vulnerable but very expressive style. Listening to Spring is like sitting with a close friend and talking for a while. …that is, if your friend happens to be a talented singer/songwriter.

Although it doesn’t exactly come in roaring like a lion, “March (a Prelude to Spring),” does start the project off as perhaps the ‘perkiest’ track, musically. The song is a quick tempo waltz featuring a duet vocal with Foreman joined by Molly Jenson, who sounds amazingly similar to one of Eisley’s Dupree sisters. Accompanied at first by guitar only, the song is soon fleshed out by a small string section led by Keith Tutt’s haunting cello, and John Painter (of Fleming and John) adding a carnival-like mini-horn section. Even with this array of talent, the song still feels nicely ‘small’ and personal, and the horn and string arrangements here, and on other parts of the album, never become bombastic or brassy and are reminiscent of the fine work of The Beatles’ producer, George Martin. There’s somewhat of a ‘sad carnival’ feel to this fine song.

The six songs on Spring are individual journeys into places in Foreman’s heart as an artist and a spiritual seeker. Each track obviously features Jon’s refreshingly basic guitar playing and his vulnerable but soulful vocal style, which he sometimes stretches into a good rock falsetto, like on “Love Isn’t Made.” The music on this project is real music, played by real people – the kind of music that would be best performed in a smaller venue, where the nuances of acoustic instruments could be appreciated. Adding to other contributors mentioned previously, it should be noted that Karl Denson played flute – Foreman plays some horns and a variety of other instruments, to round out the hand-made atmosphere.

With real-room sounding drums and percussion, sleigh bells, strings, woodwinds, and horns coming into occasional use, the project has at least a couple of moments that might bring Sufjan Stevens to mind: in particular, the rhythmically interesting “Baptize My Mind,” and “Your Love is Strong.”
Foreman’s lyrics are often poetic, sometimes a bit obscure, and occasionally profoundly biblical. Set in the musical context of acoustic guitar, a small string ensemble, sleigh bells and brushed drums, we hear such romantic lines as, “I dream / to hold you in my arms / Wide awake, In my arms / I think I figured it out / We need to be together / Like the shore and the sea,” from the song, “In My Arms.” For those that are looking for the more spiritual content, “Your Love is Strong,” bravely and skillfully offers a pop interpretation of several key scriptures, including the Lord’s prayer, Jesus’ discussion of the lilies of the field, and the parable of the pearl of great price. Not exactly lightweight material for a project coming in at just under 22 minutes!
Spring ends with “Revenge,” a song previously available as a downloadable bonus ‘demo’ from Oh! Gravity, but appears here fully-realized with horns and a string quartet.

John Foreman’s Spring EP sets the stage nicely for the next in the series: if Summer is as strong as the previous work in the series, we’ll all be able to say, ‘it’s been a very good year….’

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