Since 1996, San Diego’s Switchfoot has has been skillfully crafting rousing, crisp rock, and Fading West is a perfect culmination of that experience and expertise. Frontman Jon Foreman’s formidable songwriting and uplifting lyrics thread through each of the album’s 11 tracks, peppering them with the hope and ruminations that have made the band exemplars of spiritual rock. While Switchfoot deftly deliver characteristic pop standouts like “Let It Out,” Fading West’s crowning achievement is “Ba55”—a song that melds dark, moody atmospherics with twisting, distorted instrumentation and vocals.