Nothing Is Sound

Nothing Is Sound is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Switchfoot. It was released on September 13, 2005, and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. The first single from this album was “Stars,” which was the number one most-added song on Modern Rock Radio, and received much airplay on alternative rock stations upon release. A second single “We Are One Tonight” was released in early 2006, but without much success on the Billboard charts.

Nothing Is Sound is characterized as being a much “darker” album compared to Switchfoot’s other releases. Jon Foreman 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. Jon says, “I may write about how everything is meaningless, but it’s a very hopeful thing for me to be proven wrong.”

There was some controversy over the inclusion of XCP copy protection on the disc, which led to a posting by Switchfoot bassist Tim Foreman on their website about ways to get around it (which Columbia Records promptly removed). The album was at the forefront of the Sony BMG CD copy prevention scandal and in turn eventually led to the CD being recalled to remove the protection.