Artist Spotlight: Switchfoot

Today’s band is a band that you might have heard of before. Switchfoot has had songs on mainstream radio, TV, and has toured with well-known bands. They are a great example of a Christian band who has become popular in the mainstream and yet is not shy about their faith.

I have five of Switchfoot’s seven albums. Last year I bought a 3-CD set (Switchfoot: The Early Years) which contained the band’s first three albums, “The Legend of Chin,” “New Way To Be Human,” and “Learning to Breathe.” This set included great songs such as “Chem 6A,” “Life and Love and Why,” “Company Car,” “Only Hope,” “Love is the Movement,” and “The Economy of Mercy.” My favorite of the three albums is “The Legend of Chin” as it is fun and has some great songs for the early band.

Switchfoot then broke into the mainstream with their next album “The Beautiful Letdown,” especially with their songs “Meant to Live” and “I Dare You To Move.” “Meant to Live” is a very meaningful song with great lyrics: “We were meant to live for so much more, but we lost ourselves.” It also has a nice melody and can easily get stuck in your head. “I Dare You To Move” is also a great song as well and definitely is a motivator (as foreshadowed by the title). Other great songs on the album are “This is Your Live,” “On Fire” (a great worship song), and “Twenty-Four.” Jon Foreman, the vocalist of Switchfoot, really shows his talents on this album as well.

I don’t have their next two albums, but I want to focus on Switchfoot’s latest album, “Hello Hurricane.” I would say that this is one of the best albums on my iPod and the best of Switchfoot so far, both in terms in music and lyrics. Starting off with a sweet guitar riff in “Needle And Haystack Life,” the album’s music is deep, varied, and powerful. The lyrics on the album are also great, as evidenced on the title track: “Hello hurricane, you’re not enough. Hello hurricane, you can’t silence my love. I’ve got doors and windows boarded up. All your dead end fury’s not enough, you can’t silence my love.” The faith that Switchfoot has is also clearly shown on the album as in “Your Love Is A Song,” “Always,” and “Sing It Out.” I recommend you to check this album out as it is awesome.

Overall, Switchfoot is an awesome band with a great message, and I encourage you to look more into them. To get you started in that process, here’s some free downloads.

A few years ago, Switchfoot encouraged its fans to freely share live bootlegs of the band’s tour, and the Switchfoot Bootlegs website was born. This iTunes podcast allows you to download 300 songs (not 300 different songs though, but there are a bunch of songs represented) performed live by the band. They aren’t all the best recordings, but they really show the energy that Switchfoot has. Any of the songs that I mentioned above in the post are worth getting and allow you to get a taste for the band’s music. You will need iTunes to download the songs, but it’s definitely worth it!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/switchfoot-bootlegs/id216245256