Tony Cummings reports on the eagerly awaited new album from San Diego rockers SWITCHFOOT

Switchfoot (photo: Robbie Jeffers)

There is unlikely to be a Cross Rhythms listener or reader who isn't familiar with Switchfoot. Since their emergence in 1997 the San Diego-based rock band have some many millions of albums, toured the world and, on a more prosaic note, have down the years had a staggering 60 songs on the Cross Rhythms playlist. On 26th June, BMG will be releasing (on CD and vinyl) their eagerly awaited new album 'Forever Now'. The first single from the album, "Wake Up, Mr Crow", has already received accolades. Switchfoot's singer and songwriter Jon Foreman spoke about his thoughts leading up to the writing of "Wake Up, Mr Crow".

"We celebrate the firsts in our lives. Our first breath. Our first words. Our first steps. But the last ones? These moments are mostly unknown. We only see them in the rearview mirror. I have several friends on the other side of the grave and I can distinctly remember the last day we saw each other. I remember laughing without knowing the significance of the moment. When I look back, I began to think of the many things that I wish I would've said. Or a moment in time that I wish I could have back. Death is not exceptional. Indeed, the grave is the only thing that the living have in common. The fact of change is not remarkable. Even things that feel commonplace and obvious today will one day be taken from us.

"So the question arises: How would you live if you knew that today would be your last? What would matter most? What would be worth your time? 'Wake Up, Mr Crow' is an alarm clock of a song to begin one's last day, facing the dissonant music of our strange times. 'Rise and shine/The morning sun like a warning sign.' Mr Crow gets his coffee and fights the traffic. Radiohead and The Pixies drift from the speakers in his car. 'Paranoid android...' 'Where's my mind?' The traffic around him mirrors the traffic within. The true fight is the inner fight. 'Voice at the end of the line/But which of these voices is mine.' Who are you? What's worth living for? 'Wake up, Mr Crow!/How do you feel?'"

The second single from 'Forever Now' is the equally effecting "Absolution". Jon spoke at length about the thought process which led up to the composition of what some fans are already hailing as a classic. "If today were your last, your fears and distractions lose their power. The mental loop of boredon and shame would be short-circuited by the awareness that your time is limited. There would be no need to shy away from the big questions - there suddenly would be no time for that anymore. So what are the big questions? The ones that terrify me? The ones that I run away from most of the time?

"Here's a few that keep me up at night: Who am I? Who is God? Why am I here? What is the meaning of all this? 'Are you a real thing? Or just a feeling?' What can I do to set right my wrongs? Can I be forgiven? 'Could you become the place I run, my absolution?' Is there peace on either side of the grave, or just a 'phantom limb imagined resolution?'"

Foreman continued, "'Absolution' is the cry of the postmodern crisis: Is there a way forward for those of us who are, alas, 'only human'? What does it mean to be flawed, but trying? Are we defined by our failures forever? Or perhaps, there's a way forward. To be learning. Growing. Becoming. In the vacuous shadows of the postmodern religious landscape, can grace be found? Mercy? Forgiveness? Even redemption? 'Absolution' is a jarring juxtaposition: an upbeat, catchy melody colliding with a lyric that's deadly earnest. 'Could you become the place I run, my absolution?'"