Thoughts on the Album:
"They say that album number two is the most difficult album to make. This is probably because a band has all the time in the world to write material for their first album, and seemingly no time at all to write the second (because of endless touring). Although Jon has never left us with a shortage of songs, this was easily our most difficult recording experience to date. We set aside our entire summer to record, but due to other factors we were unable to begin recording until the fall. I (Tim) was already committed to taking a full 16 units at UCSD, so besides juggling classes and surf contests, I was flying out to Nashville every weekend for 3 months. Chad's wedding was also during this time, making him out of commission for 3 weeks. Beyond these pressures, more than ever before we were feeling growing pains. The pressure of excellence, placed upon ourselves, to make an album that showed enormous growth as a band was like luggage that we carried with us at all times. As the main songwriter, Jon felt this pressure the most. Songs such as "Let That Be Enough" and "Only Hope" were written in direct response to the weight of Jon's new burden, and the song "New Way To Be Human" was rewritten almost 50 times before he was satisfied. This album, like none before or after it, was a labor of love. Three months later, we were left with an album we were proud of, but even more importantly, a better understanding of who were as a band."
--- Tim Foreman
Song Stories:
Incomplete
And so the stage of the modern world is set. Now let's meet the cast. We are first introduced to an ordinary citizen, perhaps much like yourself. He starts his day just like you. After washing his face, he has a look in the mirror, a quick bowl of cereal and then he's off to work. Fighting the traffic, he's sick of his current state of being, he's tired of living just to exist. No missing gears. Incomplete. Incomplete! We are incomplete on our own. We are the missing people when we live inside of ourselves and inside of our doubts. There must be a loss of "incompleteness" in the process of becoming whole. "Whomever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it."
Sooner or Later (Soren’s Song)
Once upon a time, in a far away land lived a man named Soren Kierkegaard. He believed people around him did not really live life. Rather, he thought most people drifted along like a man driving a covered wagon who had fallen asleep at the reigns. Kierkegaard was convinced that real living involved active choices, and that every individual is free to choose at every moment of the day. This freedom can be terrifying when we learn that we are condemned to be free. Sooner of later we all have to deal with the frightening reality that there is much that is wrong in the world. But look! There is the doorway that leads to life more abundantly. Alas, our pride is much too large to fit in this other world. The choice which underlies every choice is this; will I live in God's kingdom or on my side of the wall? Kierkegaard emphasized that a relationship with an all powerful God is to be taken very seriously. This is Soren's song... These are his thoughts as best as I understand them.
Company Car
Some songs are rewritten 43 times (take “New Way To Be Human” for example); others seem to write themselves. This song wrote itself in about an hour. It is a caricature of the way I see L.A. Rich, fast talking executives drive around in sporty cars. You see them walk by smoking a Cuban cigar, and you wonder, “What is their world like? What is life all about for them?” This is a cartoon of what that world looks like to me. This is my grandparents favorite song on the album, so it must be all right!
Let That Be Enough
The song was written and recorded on the same day. October 21. I was looking out across the waters of my life thinking, ‘Nothing is certain. Anything can happen. But I can't make this on my own. And nothing here can satisfy me.' This is my prayer on the day before my birthday: that Christ's love would be all that I need; that even when things are not the way I would have them, His presence would be enough.
That was a really, really tough time for me. Just recording that album was tough. A lot of things didn't go the way we wanted them to. Just a real growing time, maturing time I guess. Being away from home for 3 months and the feeling of not being able to express what I wanted to in music. The feeling that you have these songs inside of you but couldn't get them out was a really tough thing. So ‘Let That Be Enough' was kind of a song of desperation, a calling out to God to be living and active in my life. I wrote the song after lunch, played it for Charlie (Producer Charlie Peacock) and he said ‘that's it' and we recorded it in like the second take. We added background vocals and keys, and that as it. We re-wrote the song "New Way To Be Human" 43 times and recorded it again, and again, and again, and then this one was finished in like 3 hours.
Only Hope
For our band (Switchfoot), this year was one of growth and growing pains. Much of who we are was pulled and stretched and left undone. For me, I felt insufficient, that I didn't have what it takes. I wrote song after song, but so much of what I longed to say was stuck somewhere inside of me. Even my best was not good enough. At one of my lowest moments, this song was given to me, I say given, because I think God sang this song to me at the end of the day. When my human efforts fell short and I lay exhausted at His feet, this was, and is, His lullaby to me. The song really says so much about what I was. I remember playing it over and over again, crying softly before my God. But I believe that 'Only Hope' is much bigger than just my experience, this is a song for everyone. There is a breaking down, there is a surrendering; there is only one hope.
Amy's Song
Amy is a fictional character who represents the heroes in my life. She's one of the rebels of our time; a girl who worships God with all that she is. In spite of volatile grey skies, she is someone who truly burns to live and inspires these flames in everyone she meets. Amy is a Christian who throws all that she is into being real in a bar-code plastic world. I wanted her to be the antithesis of the "Concrete Girl" off of our last album; someone who has found the answers to her most troubling question in Christ. For He is a dangerous fire that burns in the face of the frozen landscape.
I met a guy a while back who told me about his friend Amy who pretty much embodied the lyric with her life. I've met a few Amy’s along the way too ... Sometimes I regret giving the punchline away concerning songs, seems like putting an animal behind bars and stripping away all that was mysterious and powerful. This is a song that means a lot more than what I can say. I think songs are that way, hard to put into words.
I Turn Everything Over
Much of our world is built upon the philosophy that we can find significance and contentment inside of ourselves and our surroundings. Yet we've all heard the rumors that even after achieving these ends, we will not be content. What if the world around us is flawed? What if we are flawed? What if Christ is our only hope? What if the rumors are true?
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