''Nothing Is Sound'' is the fifth studio album by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Switchfoot Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band's members are Jon Foreman (lead vocals, guitar), Tim Foreman (bass guitar, backing vocals), Chad Butler (drums, percussion), and Jerome Fontamillas (guitar, keyboards, back ...

. It was released on September 13, 2005 and debuted at number three on the ''Billboard'' 200. The first single from the album was "

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

," which was the number one most-added song on Modern Rock Radio and received much airplay on

stations upon release. A second single, "

We Are One Tonight "We Are One Tonight" is a song recorded by the American rock band Switchfoot and is their second single from the album ''Nothing Is Sound''. This is the eleventh track on the album. Lead singer and songwriter Jon Foreman has said that the song is ...

," was released in early 2006, though it did not enjoy much success on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' charts. The album was marred by major controversy over the inclusion of XCP copy protection distributed on all copies of the disc. This led to bassist

Tim Foreman Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band's members are Jon Foreman (lead vocals, guitar), Tim Foreman (bass guitar, backing vocals), Chad Butler (drums, percussion), and Jerome Fontamillas (guitar, keyboards, b ...

posting a detailed work-around on the band's website (which was promptly removed by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

). ''Nothing Is Sound'' was at the forefront of the

Sony BMG CD copy prevention scandal A scandal erupted in 2005 regarding Sony BMG's implementation of copy protection measures on about 22 million CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces of software that provided a form of digital rights managem ...

, which eventually led to the recall of all CDs that contained the protection.

Production

Recording history

After the large success of Switchfoot's previous record, ''

The Beautiful Letdown ''The Beautiful Letdown'' is the fourth studio album by alternative rock band Switchfoot. Released on February 25, 2003, it launched the band into the mainstream on the strength of two top 20 singles: "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move." The a ...

'', the band found itself constantly touring and were forced to work on most of the new record while on the road. As a result, many of the songs on ''Nothing Is Sound'' made their public debuts at various shows on the tours. Every night on tour, the band would write parts to new songs, and test them out during the shows."There's nothing like playing a new song in front of real people with real opinions. The people at those shows, (the extended Switchfoot family), they shaped this song as much as anyone," lead singer

Jon Foreman Jonathan Mark Foreman (born October 22, 1976) is an American musician, the lead singer, guitarist, main songwriter and co-founder of the alternative rock band Switchfoot. He started Switchfoot in 1996 with drummer Chad Butler and his brother Ti ...

said.

Music and lyrical themes

''Nothing Is Sound'' is characterized as being a much "darker" album compared to Switchfoot's other releases.

even hinted that the album could be viewed as "a dark chapter revealing even more mysteries to be solved". Lyrically the songs explore topics ranging from loneliness, the end of the world, anti-entropy, and the commercialization of sex. The band has always viewed the album as being more hopeful than anything, pointing to songs like "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" as how a seemingly dark theme can actually be positive. Foreman says, "I may write about how everything is meaningless, but it’s a very hopeful thing for me to be proven wrong.". The song is a fan favourite and is often played live at their shows. Musically, the record features the most densely layered guitar work by the band to date. This is attributed to the official addition to the band of touring guitarist

Drew Shirley Andrew Philip "Drew" Shirley (born April 3, 1974) is an American rock guitarist, formerly of All Together Separate, and of the Grammy Award winning alternative rock band Switchfoot from 2005 until 2022. Career Shirley attended California Bapti ...

, whose work on the song "Golden" provided a "mellow, ethereal roof over top of the song," as Foreman noted. "Noise never sounded more beautiful!"

Reception

In October, just over a month after its original release date, ''Nothing Is Sound'' was certified gold by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

for selling 500,000 copies. The incredible pacing tapered off significantly, following the revelation of Sony's

rootkit A rootkit is a collection of computer software, typically malicious, designed to enable access to a computer or an area of its software that is not otherwise allowed (for example, to an unauthorized user) and often masks its existence or the exis ...

on the disks. The November 1, 2006 edition of ''Billboard'' magazine reported that ''Nothing Is Sound'' had sold 549,000 units. It debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 at number three, being the highest that any Switchfoot album has ever placed. "

" is the best charting single of the album, reaching as high as 16 on the modern rock chart, and number 68 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Copy protection controversy

In November 2005, it was revealed that

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

was distributing albums with

Extended Copy Protection Extended Copy Protection (XCP) is a computer software, software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet (which on 20 November 2006, changed its name to Fortium Technologies Ltd) and sold as a copy protection or digital rights man ...

, a controversial feature that automatically installed

software on any

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

machine upon insertion of the disc. In addition to preventing the CD's contents from being copied, it was also revealed that the software reported the users' listening habits back to Sony and also exposed the computer to malicious attacks that exploited insecure features of the rootkit software. Though Sony refused to release a list of the affected CDs, the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

identified ''Nothing Is Sound'' as one of the discs with the invasive software. Bassist

posted a way around the protection on the band's message boards. The original post was soon deleted, which caused some people to speculate that Sony would sue the band over this issue. However, no legal action has been taken. Jon Foreman would later say that he felt the album was "tainted" by this. An additional copy protection problem was found on some of the disks that were published by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. These disks contained

Cactus Data Shield Cactus Data Shield (CDS) is a form of CD/DVD copy protection for audio compact discs developed by Israeli company Midbar Technologies. It has been used extensively by EMI (subsequently acquired by Sony Music) and BMG and their subsidiaries. CDS reli ...

copy protection. Some copies of that version were also recalled due to incorrect copy protection settings, although they were exchanged for other copy-protected copies with the correct settings.

Dual Disc release

DualDisc The DualDisc is a type of double-sided optical disc product developed by a group of record companies including MJJ Productions Inc., EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and 5.1 Entertainment Group an ...

version of ''Nothing is Sound'' was released simultaneously with standard editions of the album. Notable is the fact that these DualDisc CDs did not contain the copy protection software. The DVD-side of the album featured the entire album in 5.1

Surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...

, and also includes an approximately 30-minute-long documentary on the making of the album.

Music videos

Switchfoot's first music video from this album is "Stars", which was filmed almost entirely underwater. Switchfoot has since released a live video version of "Stars", and another two videos for the album's second single "We Are One Tonight". The band also filmed a video for the song "Happy Is a Yuppie Word" in anticipation of its being released as the first single. However, it was never formally released, but was later included on the DVD '' Switchfootage 2'' along with a video for "The Blues".

Track listing

Extra songs

In addition to the mainstay tracks listed above, the album was released with extra material at different stores. *Albums purchased at

Target stores Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

contained an extra track called "Goodnight Punk". The song was originally considered for the album ''

'' but was cut from the final selection. *Albums purchased at

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

contained a Christmas song called "Another Christmas (Old Borego)" as a bonus track, which Jon Foreman had penned earlier for a

charity album A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's "Bangla Desh (song), Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the fir ...

released locally in the band's hometown of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. *In Japan, the album was released with an alternative version of "Dare You to Move" which is featured during a

montage Montage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films * Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing * ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film Music * Montage (music), or sound collage * ''Montage'' (Block B EP), 201 ...

in the band's DVD "'' Switchfootage''", along with the unreleased track "Monday Comes Around." *Albums purchased on

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included an

acoustic version Acoustic music is music that solely or primarily uses instruments that produce sound through acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. While all music was once acoustic, the retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the adve ...

of the song "Stars".

Personnel

;Switchfoot *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

– bass,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

*Chad Butler –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Jerome Fontamillas Jerome Fontamillas (born June 20, 1967) is an American musician. Fontamillas has played in several bands, notably with industrial rock band Mortal and alternative rock band Fold Zandura, with longtime musical partner Jyro Xhan. Since 2003, he ha ...

–

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, guitar, backing vocals *

– guitar, backing vocals ;Additional musicians *Ken Chastain – additional percussion *Chris Westlake –

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

(track 12) *

Tommy Barbarella Tommy Barbarella (born Thomas Elm) is an American keyboardist. He was a member of The New Power Generation, Prince's recording and stage band, from 1991 to 1996. Barbarella also played on Miley Cyrus's album, '' Breakout''. In 2010, Barbarella b ...

– strings (tracks 6 and 12) *

Andy Sturmer Marvin Andrew Sturmer (born March 11, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and composer who co-founded the rock band Jellyfish in 1989. He was the group's lead vocalist, drummer, and primary songwriter. Following their break-up in 1 ...

– guest background vocals (track 2) *Rachel Masen – guest background vocals (track 11) *Todd Cooper – choral vocals (track 6) *Jimmy Coup – choral vocals (track 6) *Joel Hossler – choral vocals (track 6) *The Kuyasa Kids – segue vocals Recorded at Signature Sound, Big Fish, House of Cards Studio, Big Brown Sound, Starstruck Studio, The Pass, Stellenbosch Univ. S. Africa, and dingy backstage dressing rooms. Mixed at MixThis! (tracks 4, 6, 9, 10 and 12) and Resonate Music,

Burbank, CA Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

(tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 8 and 11). Mastered at Sterling Sound,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. ;Additional personnel * John Fields – production,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

*Switchfoot – production, recording * Steven Miller – recording * Chris Testa – recording *

Dorian Crozier Dorian may refer to: Ancient Greece * Dorians, one of the main ethnic divisions of ancient Greeks * Doric Greek, or Dorian, the dialect spoken by the Dorians Art and entertainment Films * ''Dorian'' (film), the Canadian title of the 2004 film ' ...

– recording *

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a very ...

– mixing (tracks 4, 6, 9, 10 and 12) *

Chris Lord-Alge Chris Lord-Alge is an American mix engineer. He is the brother of both Tom Lord-Alge and Jeff Lord-Alge, both of whom are also audio engineers. Chris and Tom are known for their abundant use of dynamic compression for molding mixes that play wel ...

– mixing (tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 8 and 11) *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

– mastering *Michael Harris – recording assistant *Ben Moore – recording assistant *Matt Beckley – recording assistant *Cameron Barton – recording assistant *Zeph Sowers – recording assistant *Brandon Duncan – assistant mix engineer (tracks 4, 6, 9, 10 and 12) *Keith Armstrong – assistant mix engineer (tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 8 and 11) *Dimtar Krnjaic – assistant mix engineer (tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 8 and 11) *Nessim Higson – original cover art *Justin Clark – art direction and design *Danny Clinch – photography (back and silhouette band photos) *Jon Foreman – photography (other photography) * Andy Barron – photography (other photography) *David Molnar – photography (other photography)

Charts and certifications

Awards

In 2006, the album was nominated for a

Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year at the

37th GMA Dove Awards The 37th Annual GMA Dove Awards, also called the 37th Annual GMA Music Awards, were held on April 5, 2006 recognizing accomplishments of Christian musicians for the year 2005. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, ...

. The song "Stars" was also nominated for two Dove Awards.

References

External links

''Nothing Is Sound'' lyrics''Nothing Is Sound'' song stories
*
''Are You Affected By Sony-BMG's Rootkit?''
(November 9, 2005) from

{{Authority control 2005 albums Albums produced by John Fields (record producer) Albums produced by Switchfoot Columbia Records albums Sparrow Records albums Switchfoot albums