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When Switchfoot appeared on Charlie Peacock’s Re:Think label in 1997 they were all Californian surf and sun. They were good looking boys playing poppy songs and though there was a few hints of potential it all seemed a little too early ­ apart from those 16 year old girls! New Ways to Be Human two years later was a much meatier proposition in both the sound and the lyrical insight.

Learning to Breathe continues the band’s development and without doubt should be one of CCM’s stronger releases in 2000. Maybe the opening seconds of Poparazzi a humor tinged depth charge on the influence of modern culture gives a strong clue to what this album is all about. The deftest sweet little bass lick mingles with a crunching clanging guitar. Learning to Breathe is sweet and rocking intermittently. It sits in the connection point of the Venn diagrams that are pop and rock and it sits there very comfortably indeed. Radiohead may have influenced here but only in spirit and the technological trickery. This is much more accessible. As adventurous of heart but not exploring as far away in musical terms.

Spiritually the album centers on the around twenty somethings trying to make sense of all around them in both a horizontal and vertical sense. They look up and around and there is a healthy dollop of reality but a daring vision of what God can add and take away from such a world to make it a healthier place for our souls ­ and eras too: 

                In the economy of mercy
                I am a poor and begging man
                In the currency of grace
                Is where my song begins
                In the colors of your goodness
                In the scars that mark your skin
                In the currency of grace
                Is where my song begins.
                (The Economy of Mercy) 

Steve Stockman 2/3/2001
 
 

With Charlie Peacock once again at the production helm, Switchfoot's third album continues in the intelligent power pop direction of its predecessor. It's a catchy album with plenty of energy, but doesn't seem to quite capture the potential which their debut promised. 

Switchfoot's Jonathan Foreman has always had a good turn of phrase at his disposal and this album shows him continuing to apply that, whether in the title track which picks up the ideas of fully realized humanity which were so evident in the lyrics to New Way To Be Human to the tongue-in-cheek salute to pop culture that is Poparazzi.

And with the other elements of catchy hooks and interesting textures it would seem that Switchfoot have all the pieces of the pop puzzle in place. Sadly this album doesn't have either the laid back openness of New Way To Be Human or the jazzy undertones of The Legend of Chin. It's a strong and fairly well produced pop album which rises above many of the weak releases which pass for guitar pop in the CCM industry, but it isn't the creative tour de force which Switchfoot occasionally hint that they're capable of.

James Stewart 03/31/2001