Review Summary: Let me know that you hear me Let me know your touch Let me know that you love me Let that be enough
Switchfoot – New Way To Be Human
Released: 1999
Band Members:
Jon Foreman-Vocals/Guitar
Chad Butler- Drums
Tim Foreman- Bass/BGV’s
Before Switchfoot went on to sell 2.6 million copies of their breakthrough CD, The Beautiful Letdown, they released three albums on the indie label re:think Records. All three of their albums were produced by Charlie Peacock. The second of these releases was called
New Way To Be Human and was released in 1999. While this CD did manage to turn a few heads there really weren’t any hit singles produced until the next CD Learning To Breathe.
New Way To Be Human is quite an interesting listen. It takes you through various highs and lows of the San Diego Christian rock band Switchfoot. There is a great deal of emotion put into this record by Jon, the main songwriter for the band. The album itself starts of with one of the better-known songs here entitled
New Way To Be Human. The song starts off with some produced drum beats and then some twangy guitar until Jon starts to sing. And that is actually what makes Switchfoot so enjoyable. Jon’s talent. Weather he’s singing soft and quite with an acoustic guitar or if he’s got a loud band backing him, he creates a sort of connection with the listener with his honest lyrics and smooth voice.
The album continues with unmemorable, exchangeable songs up until track 5.
Let That Be Enough has got to be one of the most heart wrenching songs in Switchfoot’s catalog of songs.
Let That Be Enough, while clocking in at only 2:39, conveys a whole new level of emotion never before reached by Switchfoot. The chorus, while simple, is just so touching that it is hard not to just put this song on repeat and listen over and over again. The song is about feeling alone and begging for contact. I am assuming that Jon is talking about God here but it could be a love song if you really think about it.
Let me know that you hear me Let me know your touch Let me know that you love me Let that be enough
But not everything on New Way to be human is all that great. The real first gripe one would have with this album is that there are only 2 different types of songs. The fast up tempo rock songs or the slow acoustic ballads. There is really no in-between. There are five tracks that would fit into each category so quite frankly it’s hard to listen to this album through. And the placements of these songs really don’t help you ignore this fact. Almost the entire fire half of the CD is consisted of the fast tracks and the latter half made up with the acoustic ballads. But my real complaint of New Way To Be Human is that it may as well have been a solo record. The only member that really manages to create something unique and interesting to listen to would be Jon. I swear that I heard the same drum beat about 10 different times on this CD by Chad Butler. (Every ballad has the same drumbeat) So basically at this point in their career Switchfoot should have been called the Jon Foreman Band.
New Way To Be Human is a solid base for Switchfoot to build off of, which they already have, and something to be proud of. While it’s not as good as some of their later stuff it’s still actually catchy if you listen to it in chunks and not all at one time. If you do try to listen to it all at one time the song do end up getting blurred together and it’s hard to differentiate between tracks.
