Switchfoot Only Gets Better With Age
Posted July 31, 2007
By Epilogue,
If 'Legend of Chin' was Switchfoot's entrance into the Christian Rock scene, and 'New Way to Be Human' was the band declaring itself here to stay, 'Learning to Breathe' is the album that is letting us know Switchfoot has big plans in mind. And as the majority seems to have agree: all for the better.
This is a great album for both Switchfoot fans and average listeners. For the Switchfoot fans, this album is the thin line that separates their next three albums and the previous two. Both sides of Switchfoot are heard prominently on this; the fun loving quirky group, and the more serious, more focused older group. For the average listener, there is just a bunch of excellenty contrived, catchy, tunes.
The album opnes with original form of 'Dare You to Move'. It's a lot more choppy than the 'The Beautiful Letdown' version, but still retains its inspiring and powerful feel. It's Switchfoot's first powerful anthem, a mainstay for Switchfoot from here on out. The highly enjoyable song 'Learning to Breathe' follows in suit, with its lyrics easily describing ourselves walking in the new world of grace: 'I'm learning to breathe, I'm learning to crawl, I'm finding that You, and You alone can break my fall.'
The pure garage rocker, 'You Already Take Me There' is unnervingly catchy, almost as much as it is obnoxious on first listen. 'Love Is a Movement', another epic declaration, has some convicting lyrics that challenge the Church strongly. Love is not an emotion or a passing fancy...it's an action, a movement, it cries out, and does so powerfully. Almost as if to counter Switchfoot's serious and epic anthems, here comes the song 'Paparazzi', a return to earlier goofiness. Nothing but fun in this song.
The excellent 'Innocence Again', the fast paced 'Playing for Keeps' and the quiet tune, 'The Economy of Mercy are masterfully done and are all wildly varied. 'Loser' has an eighties anthem rock feel, and 'Erosion' is a song that, although on a different subject, reminds me a lot of 'New Way to Be Human.'
If you are looking for excellent lyrics and excellent music, look no further than Switchfoot's 'Learning to Breathe.'
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