"Hello Hurricane" Album Review

Love is The Final Fight

San Diego quintet Switchfoot has done it again. Just when everyone thought they had reached their peak with the dynamic Oh! Gravity. in 2006, they announce this past summer that they have recorded around eighty songs to be released in four separate albums. The first is Hello Hurricane. These dozen songs have elevated Switchfoot beyond their limits. As fervent Switchfoot fan Jenny Fingles observed: “They're pushing more with their sound and remaining more in with their lyrics,” when in reference to Oh! Gravity.
Switchfoot is pushing the boundaries of their sound by continuing that train of thought they started in Oh! Gravity., but are evoking an entire new breed of themselves. Despite the progression, you can still hear the roots from The Legend of Chin a decade ago. Even though they are edgier in both sound and content, the fellows from California are bound to draw new fans in while holding on to the older ones.
Fans will notice that this is on a new record label, lowercase people records, which is the new one sponsored by Switchfoot. According to lead singer Jon Foreman, it was incredibly difficult to establish continuity at their former label: “With Sony, they fired people so quickly that it was hard for us to develop any sort of traction, so we fired ourselves. We got off the label because music is very sensitive to the place that it’s coming from. We wanted to create an environment where we were going to be with the same people for a long time and trust is established.”
When Hello Hurricane was released, it was without strings attached and industry stipulations. The band finally got to make the music they wanted to. I, for one, am ecstatic over the end result. When one of your songs brings to mind both “Seven Nation Army” from The White Stripes and “Kashmir” from Led Zeppelin, yet have a unique sound, you’re doing something right. “Free” does this quite well as it precedes the title track of “Hello Hurricane.”
Personally, I have not been able to stop listening to the entire album, but my favorite tracks are “Yet,” “Sing It Out,” and “The Sound (John M. Perkins’ Blues).” “The Sound” refers to an American civil rights activist named John Perkins who preached a message focusing on love, loss, and redemption. That is a good summary of most songs on the album, with some political statements thrown in for good measure.
Many skeptics of Switchfoot will argue that it is too Christian of a band, and the music does not appeal to them since it is routinely labeled Gospel, Christian, or religious. While this may be the case, no one says a non-Christian cannot listen to music which may have Christian ideals. For all those who believe Switchfoot is too Christian, then listen to bands such as U2, where Christian beliefs are definitely in the music as well, and have been for twenty-plus years.
To use Eric Brown’s rating system, I give Hello Hurricane 4.5 bear claws. The only reason it lost half a point is because I was angry with it only being twelve songs long. This musical journey has its highs and lows in tempo and subject material, and it will have you begging for more. Hello Hurricane does not disappoint, not in the slightest. In addition, iTunes has a few extra songs that truly complete the album.