The Legend of Chin - Switchfoot

The Legend of Chin - Switchfoot
1997, Re:think

Ah, Switchfoot's charming debut record. I wasn't alive yet and these guys were already getting things started, albeit their line-up was a bit smaller at the time (Jon and Tim Foreman and Chad Butler). Even in their earliest iteration, Switchfoot was already establishing their style, one they would continue to develop over time. The result is a likable record from a band that showed promise.

As you might have guessed, this album is a blend of what would become Switchfoot and a youthful side of the band that has, with age, been abandoned. On the track "Chem 6A," Jon sings about having "nothing but laziness" in a tongue-in-cheek song about teenaged indifference. The song "Might Have Ben Hur" is about a girl Jon is infatuated with; a handful of songs start with some pre-performance banter among the guys. All of this adds to the charm and youth that oozes out of the album. On the other hand, Jon was already singing well-written songs with mature themes, the most famous of which is "You." Jon's talent as a lyricist is as well on display on this album as with any album.

The sonic aspect is also worthy of attention. What stood out most to me was Tim's bass work. While his talent makes appearances here and there on later records, it's front and center on this album, particularly the track "Bomb." The overall sound of the album is quite polished; it doesn't sound like a band trying to find their groove, but rather a band who already knows what they want to sound like. As such the genre stays consistent throughout the album (no sudden dips in weird directions). At the same time however, they sound pretty similar to other 90s alternative bands, failing to set themselves up as a truly unique band. The pacing is where the album struggles for me. Switchfoot is usually good at distributing slower songs among the energetic songs, but not so much on this album. In the second half of the album you get a bunch of slower songs at once; while they aren't bad, they don't carry the momentum built up from the first half of the album and, as a result, I get bored.

All in all, this album is good; it's not fantastic, it's not terrible, it's good. The band set themselves in motion and got a good start. They laid the groundwork for their sound to come and, with this foundational album, got themselves started on a path that would lead to some masterpieces.

7/10

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