SWITCHFOOT LITE, ANYONE?

New Reunion Records band Tenth Avenue North comes off as a welter-weight version of Cali-rockers Switchfoot: similar voice, similarly breezy, pop/rock band, albeit with more obvious (and more obviously Christian) lyrics. The lovely, chiming first song, “Love Is Here,” seems primed for radio, its politely rocking chorus proclaiming, “Love is pouring from His brow…and from His side.” Both it and the equally pretty “Hold My Heart” could be adult contemporary mixes of undiscovered Switchfoot tracks, sans the philosophy major lyrics.

Instead, in a few instances, you get too-simple songwriting: “Lift Us Up To Fall” is beset by a too-sing-songy chorus, also a problem on “Let It Go” and elsewhere. Despite promising, energetic songs like “Break Me Down” and the disc’s more reflective second half, one never escapes comparing vocalist Mike Donehey to Jon Foreman. As comparisons go, that’s a happy one. Though it doesn’t reach the heights of Red or Leeland’s debuts, Over and Underneath is worth a listen on its own merits; it’s consistently listenable, if not wholly original, from start to finish.

–Beau Black