San Diego-based Christian pop-rock group Switchfoot returns with their follow-up to their 2005 Billboard top selling album, “Nothing Is Sound,” with their newest project, “Oh! Gravity.”

“Oh! Gravity” kicks off with the title track, full of catchy melodies and the classic poppy feel that has come to define the group that is now on their sixth full-length release since their formation in 1996.

The album takes a heavier, hard-hitting turn with such songs as “Dirty Second Hands,” which sounds like it was taken right out of the songbook and vocal styling of Layne Staley, and “Circles,” a soft ballad that punches in at each chorus.

The use of synthesizers and strings has become more and more of a focus as the band grows, and can be heard on a great portion of the album, such as on “Faust, Midas and Myself,” the track that can be defined as the turning point of the album.

Though the band seems to become more musically talented with each release, “Oh! Gravity” seems to incorporate too much effort to make a polished album. They drift away from the simplicity most bands do in later years, by adding much more than needed to the music. Some of the guitar riffs are most definitely rockin’, such as on “Amateur Lovers,” which is very reminiscent of the Rolling Stones. But riffs such as these get lost on the album behind all the other “junk” that is being played over them.

“Oh! Gravity” requires more punch, and needs to be stripped down to the basics in order to be truly called a solid album. Lyrically, the album is solid from top to bottom, but the music just doesn’t cut it.

Watching paint dry seems like a better idea than falling asleep at the wheel to this CD.