Switchfoot – Native Tongue (Reimagine / Remix) EP

Fantasy Records/Concord Music Group

Release Date: January 17th 2020

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Switchfoot– Native Tongue (Reimagine / Remix) EP (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

  1. Wonderful Feeling (West Coast Edition)
  2. All I Need (West Coast Edition)
  3. Voices (feat. Lindsey Stirling
  4. Let It Happen (Will “FRANKLIN” Chapman Remix)
  5. Native Tongue (Mason Self Remix)

One of the most loved bands ever is Switchfoot. It’s pretty evident when fans, critics, and even those of us who weren’t really connecting with the band on a soul level, wished them well when they announced rather suddenly that they’d be going on hiatus from the end of 2017 onwards. While I was welcoming their well deserved break (because Jon Foreman, Tim Foreman, Drew Shirley, Jerome Fontamillas and Chad Butler have been going at being a band for the past 20 something years- an extended break was a long time coming, and well deserved, even if it may have been permanently!), in the back of my mind I thought the band was done, and would be another dc Talk- fans wishing for a reunion but never having that wish fulfilled. However in January 2019, NATIVE TONGUE, the band’s 11th studio album, released to all digital retailers and to all physical store outlets. The band’s hiatus was officially over- and if you want to read about my thoughts on the album, you can read about it here!

While I have rated NATIVE TONGUE an almost perfect score, it seems Jon Foreman and co. aren’t just content with just a studio album of their latest material- because Switchfoot now have revealed a remix EP- titled…you guessed it! Native Tongue (Reimagine / Remix) EP released this past week, with 5 tracks of some of their best hits from the album- remixed and redone with a more modern atmosphere. The album isn’t perfect (because, it’s an EP, of songs from NATIVE TONGUE, and not a full on ‘greatest hits’ remix type project which would have been much more fitting as they describe their journey and open a new chapter of a book that’s yet to be written!), yet it gives me a taste of what a Switchfoot remix album in the future could sound like (like Vice ReVerses), and for that I am grateful, and still anticipating the day when a full length remix album or rerecorded project releases.

With Switchfoot’s new studio album being thought provoking and challenging, it is their remix EP that adds an extra dimension into how I see these guys. With Jon’s passion being second to none in this ever changing and evolving musical landscape, no doubt a full-length live remix album would be probably second to only Newsboys’ 2 remix albums. I still can’t wait to hear more of Switchfoot’s new music (studio or live or remix or acoustic or worship or covers or…just any type of album; as I reckon another album will follow suit soon; the band I’m sure have written songs based on Jerome’s cancer ordeal!), but as it stands, NATIVE TONGUE is one of my favourite Switchfoot studio albums behind Vice Verses, Fading West and The Beautiful Letdown. While this remix EP could have been longer, I loved the way it was done, and these guys need to be congratulated for both the EP and the album, and any future albums- because Jon, Tim, Chad, Drew and Jerome are geniuses, don’t you think?

3 songs to listen to: All I Need, Voices, Native Tongue

Score: 4.5/5

RIYL:  Skillet, RED, Daughtry, Fireflight, Anberlin, House Of Heroes, needtobreathe

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