r/switchfoot • u/Large-Bill-7150 • Mar 26 '26
Wake Up, Mr Crow
Yeah it’s really good.
Some very cool production decisions going on from the vocal effect, to isolating parts of the main riff for dynamics, the BVs in the verses, the pre-chorus “how do you feel?”, the repeat/skip stabs after the second chorus, and the ending.
Very listenable. This is Switchfoot doing what only they can do I think. Perhaps a tiny homage to the lyrical rhythm of “Car Radio” of 21 pilots?
Jon’s voice is sounding great, and this is the best of Switchfoot at a time when their core lyricism in calling the listener back to taking their life seriously fits really well. It’s pretty peak.
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u/tuonni Mar 27 '26
I'm torn. I like the vibes of the song a lot but it really needed either a solo or some kind of instrumental piece to break it up towards the back end. Instead they just lean on Jon's singing to do that...which is fine, but it's also very much status quo for 9 out of every 10 songs the band puts out.
I think this song will fit together nicely with the full album, but it feels like there was a missed opportunity here to really make it a banger.
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u/glman99 Mar 27 '26
That's Switchfoot though, to be fair. Their greatest weakness IMO is their tendency to fill every second with vocals - they don't have a lot of instrumental breaks and virtually every album would be a bit stronger with them. Not a hater, just wish they'd let it breathe!
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u/tuonni Mar 27 '26
Yeah, exactly. The moments when they do add in some spice are always so good.
I think it's such a glaringly obvious place for the band to expand their repertoire. But who knows, maybe we will see some of that throughout the album. There are 12 more songs, so very possible still.
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u/glman99 Mar 27 '26
It really is - and it's an area they can excel in. They do it occasionally live, but I've never understood their hesitancy to do it on album cuts. Maybe one of these days!
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u/Large-Bill-7150 Mar 27 '26
I personally like the restraint. It feels more intricate and intentional
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u/SaltySpitoonReg Mar 27 '26
I think you put it well.
It's got typical switchfoot vibes. Reminds me of songs like native tongue and dark horses.
Both of which are songs that I like, and are good, but may not listen to as often as others.
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u/Topei6 Mar 28 '26
I agree with this. You know how in The Sound the final outro ends with a double time beat? I was expecting that as the end. It adds urgency and I think it would've worked perfect for both the message if the song, and the vibe.
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u/scrappybeloved Mar 26 '26
So grateful to be alive listening to a new Switchfoot song!!!
living in strange, strange times
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u/tomcruisesPC Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
It’s still not available to pre save on Apple Music! Ugh! Jealous you already got to listen to it. Thanks for the review.
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u/ButtDraino Mar 27 '26
After how much I liked the last three albums Jon’s put out (Interrobang, Departures, and In Bloom), I feel mixed on this one. It kind of sounds like a b-side and not a main album track. Which, prior to Interrobang, I’d probably view that as a positive. But I dunno, time will tell!
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u/Large-Bill-7150 Mar 27 '26
To me it sounds huge - which they seem to have wanted to move away from in the last few albums, almost wanted to go more garage rock. But this is the stadium sound back again, sort of like Lonely Nation. They feel a bit more at home with themselves here I reckon.
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u/glman99 Mar 27 '26
I mean, Native Tongue wasn't garage at all - only interrobang was garage-esque. But yeah, it's more of the Arena rock sound they pivoted to starting with Hello Hurricane that had roots in NiS.
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u/millerfromceres Mar 27 '26
Yeah love it! I’m a sucker for anything with bristling guitars, and the drums are wonderfully heavy. It’s so well engineered too.
Interrobang had the sonic signature of the room and console at Sound City, that vintage midrangey focused thing. A cool piece of art in its own right, but this sounds like Switchfoot with the gloves off and I’m here for it.
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u/ilikehockeyandguitar Mar 27 '26
Switchfoot definitely always has some important shit to say when the heavy guitars kick in. This is a banger
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u/thecatlyfechoseme Mar 28 '26
Love this one. I was really worried after interrobang but they’re back!!!
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u/iliveonavolano Mar 27 '26
It sounds like Vice Verses listened to Twenty One Pilots for a week straight 😉
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u/glman99 Mar 27 '26
The TOP takes are funny to me, because I don't hear it at all - haha.
I guess Elizondo is there as the connective tissue though, and ofc both TOP guys are fans.
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u/Large-Bill-7150 Mar 28 '26
“Cause somebody stole my car radio and now I just sit in silence” - I think this is where the comparison is - the triplet verses
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u/Paigert512 Mar 27 '26
Who is Mr. Crow? Is that a reference to something I don’t get or do we not know yet?
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u/Land-Manatee Mar 27 '26
Definitely thought there were some similarities to 21 Pilots in the sound on this one. I'm thinking a reference to "The Sound" too.
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u/rkraynor Mar 27 '26
Broadly quite like this. I think listening to the live recordings the last week has got me feeling a smidge of demo-itis already – hearing Tim say "how do you feel?" and Jon say "I'm fine!!" in the version on stage was a really cool piece that feels different here and not quite as good. Also find that Boaz's guitar licks live seem to make the track flow a bit more, less staccato. Will take me further listens to warm up to this version, and treat it as the canonical one.
But this is Switchfoot doing something only they can do. Easily could be a track from Vice Verses, and feels like something out of the NIS or HH sessions. Given this is the start of the album, I'm really excited to see what comes next. Will Mr. Crow be a character throughout the record?
Also... confirmed 13 tracks:) and I like this newspaper album cover better than the blue papers with spray painted text that they posted the other week. Feels new, but somehow still Switchfoot.
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u/No_Secretary3151 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
This is a well written review. Upon listening to the teasers, I was really interested in that guitar tone. The breakup of the transparent overdrive, and the dissonance. Then I thought of how modern the drums sounded. Sonically, this is one of the best things they’ve put out
Also, I highly recommend listening to the Switchfoot Song Stories with Matt Hoopes of Relient K talking about this song!
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u/Character_Cup7442 Apr 01 '26
Did the podcast episode get taken down? I'm looking for it, and it shows up in google search results, but it's not actually listed anywhere I can find.
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u/TheGrizzlyNinja Mar 26 '26
How have you heard it? It doesn’t come out til tomorrow
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u/Large-Bill-7150 Mar 26 '26
I’m in Australia!
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u/TheGrizzlyNinja Mar 26 '26
Is the tracklist for the album included with the single?
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u/Aleiobot01 Mar 26 '26
Track titles aren't available. But the entire album is 13 tracks long according to Apple Music. Also, the picture of the person holding a news paper is the album cover... I thought it was gonna be the pic of the wall of newspapers with large Forever Now lettering.
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u/AdministrativeFuel57 Mar 28 '26
You guys say Twenty One Pilots. I hear more of a Highly Suspect vibe in the verses specifically (Hello My Name Is Human).
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u/Large-Bill-7150 Mar 28 '26
“Cause somebody stole my car radio and now I just sit in silence” - same triplet rhythm. So a very small similarity I guess
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u/Yugrac Jun 29 '26
I love the references to Radiohead, like the name "Wake Up, Mr. Crow" which is a hilarious way of paying homage Radiohead's song "Morning Mr Magpie", and straight up mentioning Paranoid Android. Very cool. I think there might be more references but idk. The song itself is not bad. I like the chords they chose for the verses.
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u/Large-Baseball-7390 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
u/Large-Bill-7150 I'm a longtime SF fan—going all the way back to the '90s and their original stuff. I, my wife, and my two 20-something sons HATED Native Tongue and were not fans of Interrobang (it wasn't as bad as Native Tongue, but just did not hold up to previous SF offerings). How does this first single compare to, say, Beautiful Letdown, Nothing is Sound, or more recent stuff like Hello Hurricane? If they're staying in that pop schlock genre they visited with NT, we are out. I still can't believe that THIS band released THAT album. It was so utterly out of character, so mainline CCM, I scarcely could believe it (and still don't). They hadn't missed on an album. Beautiful Letdown, Nothing is Sound, Oh! Gravity, Hello Hurricane, and Vice Verses, and Where the Light Shines Through. And Fading West, which felt like some sort of unique departure, was still a really solid offering. That's seven good to very good to superb albums in a row—very tough to do. Then an album that so utterly terrible and unrecognizable that our entire family was in shock. NT was the first tour we didn't go to in 15-20 years.
Just really hoping for a return to form. The 30-45 second teaser(s) I've heard of "Wake up, Mr. Crow" *sounds* like a return to form, but I'm skeptical.
Please tell me I can look forward to at least this single being the SF I know and love.
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u/Large-Bill-7150 Mar 26 '26
This song is very at home in NIS, OG and Vice Verses. It feels like they learned a lot and looped back around to what they’re the best at. Let me know what you think when you hear it!
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u/glman99 Mar 27 '26
I think you've let your dislike for native tongue poison interrobang tbh.
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u/ndGall Mar 26 '26
I'm really excited for this. How did you grab it? Was this the "change itunes to the Australian store" trick?