Going backwards in a band\u2019s catalog can feel like an archeological expedition. Digging through the rubble of the ancient past, what will the artifacts we discover suggest about more recent events, about the evolution of a culture, an idea, a band?<\/p>\n
Six years and two albums prior to their mainstream breakthrough The Beautiful Letdown<\/i> (2003), Switchfoot introduced themselves to the world by way of 1997\u2019s The Legend Of Chin<\/i>. Starting out as a tight trio of Jon Foreman (lead vocals and guitar), Tim Foreman (bass and backing vocals) and Chad Butler (drums and backing vocals), the group here sounds embryonic in every way but ambition. Unpolished as it sometimes is, this debut offers abundant clues to the band\u2019s eventual success, an album of raw yet tasty dough that would eventually cook up into something special.<\/p>\n
The pure drive and considerable dynamics of tunes like \u201cChem 6A,\u201d \u201cUnderwater,\u201d and \u201cThe Edge Of My Seat\u201d point toward the band\u2019s eventual transition to a bigger sound. Meanwhile, touches like the dreaminess of \u201cBomb,\u201d the trumpet accents on the bridge of \u201cEdge\u201d and the string section deployed on \u201cYou\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Be There\u201d suggest the experimental flair that would manifest itself more and more as the band evolved and matured.<\/p>\n
Chin<\/i> also offers an introduction to Foreman\u2019s penchant for addressing spiritual concerns in his lyrics without proselytizing (\u201cBomb,\u201d \u201cLife And Love And Why,\u201d \u201cOde To Chin\u201d). The ballads \u201cHome\u201d and \u201cYou\u201d skate right up to the edge of becoming devotional songs, but never cross the line, remaining searching and thoughtful rather than directive and preachy. A personal favorite here, \u201cConcrete Girl\u201d delivers both intriguing soft-hard dynamics and a gauzy lyric that feels like it\u2019s projecting teen angst through the lens of a spiritual quest.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s different here from later Switchfoot outings is the youthfulness apparent in narratives like \u201cChem 6A\u201d and \u201cMight Have Ben Hur,\u201d and the simplicity of the trio\u2019s still-rudimentary sound, a sort of raw, close-up mono version of their later panoramic, full-surround approach. You can sense the potential, but the boys\u2014ages 23, 20 and 18\u2014hadn\u2019t progressed far enough yet at this point to fully harness it.<\/p>\n
The Legend Of Chin<\/i> is nonetheless an impressive debut, a signpost pointing the way to bigger songs, bolder experiments, and a much wider audience. And the charms at its heart are the same found on any Switchfoot album: the pure sincerity and heartfelt words of Jon Foreman, set to diverse musical approaches that range from gentle acoustic ballads to catchy guitar pop to propulsive hard rock. Sometimes raw cookie dough is almost as good as the finished product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7886],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-43485","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-switchfoot","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43485"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}