My Top 40 Albums - #28

#28
Switchfoot - "The Legend of Chin"

Year: 1997
Label: Re:Think
Favorite songs: Chem6A, Underwater, Bomb, Home, Edge of My Seat
Lyric sample: "With blankness staring back at me / Screaming from the pages / I feel the fear of apathy / Gripping me, pushing me on / Top of everything / In a corner with a view / I turn off the fluorescent tubes // This is the bomb that I've been waiting for, living for / You've finally lit the fuse that's in my head"

Switchfoot's debut captures the essence of the band at its most honest - not necessarily lyrically, but musically. Legend of Chin is the product of three guys from San Diego who really like to surf and play music. Jon Foreman, the singer/songwriter with the guitar; Tim, his bassist brother; and the elder Chad Butler on drums. For those who started with the band in the Beautiful Letdown era may be interested to know how they got their start. I was not impressed with this record the first time I listened to it, but slowly it grew on me as I realized what I was listening to. While Switchfoot has been wildly successful with their somewhat atmospheric, stadium alt rock, their roots are here in a surf-punk concoction that could only come from the West Coast.

One thing fans will recognize, something that band has not really gotten away from, is the quality and tenderness of their ballads. Songs like "Home" are just pure, passionate and poetic. Just acoustic guitar and a good melody (and in some cases a good string arrangement). "Home" is actually one of Switchfoot's better ballads. The songs like "Only Hope" that eventually made them famous owe to the likes of "Home," "You," and "Don't Be There" from this initial outing. The reason I like this record so much is because the songwriting is so transparent, so close to the listener. It feels more like they are sharing it with you in their basement or garage rather than showering you from the distance of brightly lit and unapproachable stage. The three-piece set-up impresses me because every instrument has to take up exactly the right amount of space. Each has to support the others while shining in its own way. This requires precise and creative arrangements to be done well. Nothing is overproduced - there are no sweeping synths, and there are not 10,000 guitar tracks layered over one another. The distortion is fuzzy rather than compressed to heck and back. Tim's bass lines are part of the melody - take out anything and the tracks falter. Yet it doesn't sound like everyone is trying really hard - it sounds kind of laid back, actually.

The album starts out with the odd but addictive "Bomb," one of the stranger songs of Switchfoot's career but it's a fitting opener, showcasing the color and necessity of Tim's bass as well as Foreman's singing style and characteristic lyrics. Then comes "Chem6A," perhaps the first single of their career. It's a fantastic rock groove with a memorable, bouncy verse riff about the complacency and laziness of American youth. "Underwater" completes the opening trinity, this one featuring a jazzy piano interlude and building to an exciting, saturated conclusion. These three songs should honestly be all you need to see the quality of old school Switchfoot. But they continue with the upbeat "Edge of My Seat" and the gorgeous "Home." For some reason "You" was picked for the Walk to Remember soundtrack, but while it's a fine song, I don't think it's one of the standouts from this record or even from the second half. The second half honors probably go to "Life, Love, and Why," a song that the band had to recently re-learn for their shows based on fan requests.

The band clearly progressed throughout their career, but there will always be a simple charm to this disc. If you like the group at all, you owe it to yourself to give this a listen. It's even easier now that you can get all three of the first three Switchfoot records (Legend of Chin, New Way to Be Human, and Learning to Breathe) in one reasonably priced collection.