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Fading West is the ninth studio album by the American alternative rock band Switchfoot, released on January 14, 2014 through Atlantic. The album was promoted by four singles: "Who We Are" and "Love Alone Is Worth the Fight", released in September 2013, "Let It Out" released in February 2014, and "When We Come Alive", released in May 2014.

An accompanying film/documentary, Fading West, premiered on September 20, 2013 during the first concert of the Fading West Tour, and was released digitally on December 10, 2013. The film features a behind-the-scenes look at Switchfoot, and follows the band members to their surfing destinations.

In an interview with Jake Denning, drummer Chad Butler said: "It’s been interesting you know – typically a Switchfoot record will start with Jon [Foreman] and a guitar, then we’ll build the framework of a song around that. But this time there’s been a lot more space to have new experimentation, finding instruments in the locations we go – for instance, Drew [Shirley] finding a guitar on the side of the road in Africa made out of a gas can, being inspired by the unique sounds that it had. (...) I guess it’s allowed us to start from the ground up, and let the sounds that we’re finding exist without necessarily melody or a lyric yet, and just have a landscape of sound. (...) I think there’s going to be room to breathe on the album that we haven’t allowed ourselves in the past. You know, I think there’s that cinematic idea in the back of your mind that you're creating something that doesn’t have to be a 3 minute pop song."

According to Jon Foreman, the album will feature some Switchfoot friends, including his Fiction Family bandmate Sean Watkins and his sister Sara Watkins, saxophonist Karl Denson and Charlie Peacock (the co-producer of "Dare You to Move", who discovered Switchfoot and signed the band to its first record deal): "We want to just kind of pull on different people who play other instruments and can add colors to the score that we would never be able to add."

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