Switchfoot - "Hello Hurricane"

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(The Return of Switchfoot TV [EPISODE 41])

This is a recent podcast from one of my favourite bands, Switchfoot, one of the top US rock bands, who happen to also be Christians. I'm posting this because the first 90 secs. or so give a blast of the opening track from their wonderful 2009 album "Hello Hurricane": "Needle + Haystack Life".

They are a great fun-lovin' bunch of guys and I have always really enjoyed their podcasts. They seem to have a real blast together. But the writing and recording of "Hello Hurricane", which took 2 years saw the band go through a complete reassessment of who they are and why they do what they do. It was a hard, soul-searching experience for them. They were no longer signed to a major label and had complete creative control for the first time on an album: a blessing and a curse, as it turned out.

But the end product is, I feel, their most personal, heartfelt record, perhaps their most overtly spiritual, the lyrics mixing darkness and light, suffering and joy, the songs ranging from full-on rock to wonderful mobile-phones-in-the-air ballads. A particular favourite of mine is "Always", released in the Christian charts in the US before Christmas, whilst they also released "Mess Of Me" into the mainstream. The bit where Jon Foreman sings "Hallelujah, I'm caving in" gets me every time.



(audio = album version that's been added to a video of a live studio version)

This is the start
This is your heart
This is the day you were born
This is the sun
These are your lungs
This is the day you were born

And I am always yours

These are the scars
Deep in your heart
This is the place you were born
This is the hole
Where most of your soul
Comes ripping out
From the places you've been torn

And it is always yours
But I am always yours

Hallelujah!
I'm caving in
Hallelujah!
I'm in love again
Hallelujah!
I'm a wretched man
Hallelujah!
Every breath is a second chance

And it is always yours
And I am always yours

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