Jon Foreman's Spring & Summer EPs

Jon Foreman's, frontman of Switchfoot, has released the last two EPs of his 4 CD solo project. Foreman's Seasons project contains 4 six song EPs titled Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. The last two CDs were released in it's retail version on tuesday with the Spring EP & Summer EP.

The first two EPs, Fall and Winter, were not polarly different in tone or mood. Similarly the Spring and Summer EPs flow relatively seamlessly from one to the next, but these two albums have a slightly different tone. Generally they are brighter, cheery, and more jovial. You have a sense of that change right from the start with the first track of Spring called "March (a prelude to Spring)." This short little one man band piece is goofy and then flows into a ballad called "Love Isn't Made." "Love Isn't Made" lyrically is probably most similar to a ballad the Foreman would write for a Switchfoot album with it's lyrics like "So I arrive at the conclusion that love isn't made/ love doesn't sell or pay/ but we buy and sell our love away."

Generally I would say both of the newest EPs have debatable more spiritual messages. One of the strongest songs on the album that grabs be in my first listens is the track "Baptize My Mind" with a bright Samba style and sung exceptionally by Foreman. It's simple message is found in it's repetitive lines and a bridge that sounds like it could have popped out of the central park scene in Enchanted. Foreman sings one line and then the theological background vocals chant with energy, like this: "Both my hands are filled with guilt (be my absolution)/ Both my eyes are blind with filth (be my absolution)."

With more complicated lyrics, but similar music is the very singer-song writer prayer "Your Love is Strong," which plays off many themes from the Lord's prayers.

The other song that really sticks out to me when I listen to these albums is the very forward/critical song "Instead of a Show." In this song Jon Foreman directly criticizes the common and showy worship experience that is filled with the "hypocrisy of your praise," "noisy worship...noisy hymns," and people who shine up there shoes and "sing right along with the band." Jon Foreman sings "I stop up my ears when you're singing." Instead Foreman asks that there be "a flood of justice...a precession of righteous living." Foreman talks about the church and worshipers no longer turning their backs on the homeless and live what they're singing.

Overall it's a great album, and I would totally encourage you to Purchase these EPs our download some of these songs, especially if you are into the singer-songwriter genre. These albums are creative, wonderful to listen to, and filled with poignant lyrics.

My thoughts on the Fall & Winter EP can be found here.