Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot

If you haven’t yet listened to their latest album, you have no idea what you’re missing out on…

Hello Hurricane is the seventh album released by American alternative rock band Switchfoot The name comes from the love the band has for surfing, and it is indeed a surfing term, which entails that to switch your feet means to take a new stance facing the opposite direction. It’s about change and movement, a different way of approaching life and music, and this is what their latest album is all about, which has also been hailed as marking a sort of revival for the band.

Similarly to Anberlin, Switchfoot is often referred to as a “Christian Band”, mostly due to their continued involvement with the Christian rock scene. The band has always philosophically disagreed with this label: “For us, it’s a faith, not a genre”, says Jon Foreman. “We’ve always been very open and honest about where the songs are coming from. For us, these songs are for everyone. Calling us ‘Christian rock’ tends to be a box that closes some people out and excludes them. And that’s not what we’re trying to do. Music has always opened my mind—and that’s what we want”.

Quoting Wiki: Though they hold this position, they have not alienated their Christian fans. As in their indie days, they are still distributed to Christian retail outlets through Sparrow Records/EMI CMG,  featured on Christian radio and charts, and presented Dove Awards, even after having been signed to the mainstream Columbia Records from 2003-2007 and currently, Atlantic Records. “Signing to Columbia was a realization of something that we’d wanted to be from the beginning,” Foreman explains. “When we were signed to re:think Records -an indie label, the goal was to get the music out to everybody. But when Sparrow -a Christian label bought re:think Records, it was evident that our music wasn’t going to be in the hands of everybody. As a Christian, I have a lot to say within the walls of the church. But also, as a Christian, I’ve got a lot to say just about life in general … So to be able to be on Columbia and on Sparrow felt like the realization of the two sides of what we had to say. It’s a dream come true to be able to have songs that are outside of the box.”

Back to the album:  Hello Hurricane acknowledges the storms that tear through our lives. It is an attempt to respond to those storms with an element of hope, trying to understand what it means to be hopeful in a world that keeps on spinning.   My favourite 2 songs are Always and Enough, and these particularly reflect the true meaning of HOPE and FAITH, through the lines – ‘Every breath is a second chance’ (Always)… and ‘every seed dies before it grows’ (Enough).

Always

Enought to Let me Go