| Switchfoot Reviews | |||||||||||||||||
| The Phantom Tollbooth | Village Life | ||||||||||||||||
|
The Legend of Chin Switchfoot re:think/Sparrow Comm. Picked this one up solely for the cool band name and album title which reminded me of those old kung-fu movies. Later, I found out from their review in Surfing Magazine that the guys in the band are surfers from San Diego, which made me want to like them even more (surfing is my passion). Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised but not as impressed as I wanted to be. Throughout the album these guys come close to pulling off some great quirky alternative rock a la Cake or Protein (vocals and music), but they always fall back into generic alternative rock right when they start getting good. For you surfers out there, think of it this way: each Switchfoot song is like a good wave, and although they had good positioning and their takeoff looked solid, they'd either drop in and make one turn before eating it, or pull out at the last second. Too bad. Practice leads to improvement in surfing and music, though, so I'll be looking for their next album.-----Josh Spencer |
It was bound to happen eventually ..... Christian surf music. Not really, but Switchfoot members - the Foreman brothers, Jon (guitar) and Tim (bass), and drummer, Chad Butler - are all surfers who have competed in NSSA National Surfing Championships. However, they definitely aren't Beach Boys clones. Their musical influences range from U2 (Jon) to Paul McCartney (Tim) to Stevie Wonder (Chad). Add to this the fact that their parents are musician/songwriters from the "Jesus movement" of the early 1970's, and you have a foundation for unbridled creativity. The end result of this "strange brew" is an incredibly refreshing blend of alternative rock, pop, jazz, and yes, even a hint of surf music, that is stuffed full of highly original, and sometimes quirky, lyrics. This is a CD which is really fun to listen to, especially while trying to figure out the meaning of some of the lyrics.....just check out "Concrete Girl." The Legend of Chin is one of the best debut albums I've heard from a Christian alternative rock band. --Larry Sturgill | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
|
This page has been visited
|