Switchfoot -- New Way to be Human

7/10

I totally forgot Switchfoot had a second album, until I saw New Way to Be Human in the old Soulglow binder my co-host, David Loti, gave to me when we split the CD's, years after our radio show had become defunct. I don't know why it took me 12 years to notice Switchfoot had a second album. I had both enjoyed and frequently listened to their first and third albums. Sure enough, I mostly like this one too.
New Way to Be Human sounds like a direct continuation of Switchfoot's debut, The Legend of Chin. It doesn't add a whole lot to the band's indie/alternative rock sound, outside of a bit more polish. Jon Foreman's guitar sounds just a bit crunchier, and crunchier more often, but otherwise, he's still playing in the same style, tossing in a few jazz chords just like he did on the band's debut, but at a lower clip.
Songs add interesting augmentations, like horns and strings, along with some cool ambient soundscapes, but the band did that on their debut album too. They mix things up here with some very memorable acoustic ballads, but they also did that on their debut. The progression here is lyrical, as Foreman explores philosophy, with a song focused on Soren Kierkegaard, "Sooner or Later (Soren's Song)" and another on Augustine of Hippo, "Something More (Augustine's Confession)." The former contains one of those cool, musically probing outros that I always go nuts for--and sounds like it somehow employs the "save" sound effect from the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
The band also continue to sow the seeds of their future success here, as centerpiece ballad, "Only Hope," was sung by Mandy Moore in the 2002 tear-jerking surprise hit film, A Walk to Remember. My little sister, who'd recently graduated high school, put that film on a bunch of times, and I remember saying, "Wow, Switchfoot's in a movie!" but I never put it together that this song was taken from an actual Switchfoot album.
When I first discovered New Way to Be Human, I was just ecstatic to have a new early period Switchfoot album. But now, nearly a decade removed from that experience, and listening to Switchfoot's first albums in sequence, New Way to Be Human feels solid, but a bit slight. There's something a little more straightforward about the music, and the album seems to end almost as soon as it begins, even as it feels a bit aimless. There's a feeling here that Switchfoot could do better...


1999 re:think Records
1. New Way to Be Human 3:36
2. Incomplete 4:13
3. Sooner or Later (Soren's Song) 3:58
4. Company Car 3:13
5. Let That Be Enough 2:38
6. Something More (Augustine's Confession) 4:00
7. Only Hope 4:13
8. Amy's Song 4:30
9. I Turn Everything Over 3:21
10. Under the Floor 3:55