"Native Tongue"

As soon as I heard "Native Tongue" come on the radio, I knew it had to be a hit. Catchy and assertive from the first note, I was instantly engaged and as I listened to the lyrics, I had to double-check that I was on a Christian station (sadly, that's what I do when I hear good music that doesn't immediately reference God or Jesus).

Check it out before you read on:

Honestly I wasn't huge into Switchfoot in the early 2000s, when my sister and all my youth group peers were listening to them, but that might've been because songs like "Dare You to Move," "Meant to Live" and "This is your life" were overplayed on mainstream radio before I could really appreciate their music (come to think of it, The Beautiful Letdown was actually a pretty stellar album). I was also surprised to learn Switchfoot has been making music (read: putting out albums) pretty consistently for almost 25 years, which is pretty impressive for any artist, let alone a Christian band. I think the mark of a good one, in my book, is when they can cross over into secular stations without selling out (bands like Relient K and singers like Lauren Daigle and even Stephen Curtis Chapman come to mind).

I listen to a lot of different music, and a lot of music period, so I feel like I have kind of high standards when it comes to evaluating artists and songs -- it has to have strong vocals and lyrics as well as skilled instrumentation for me to mark it as a favorite, and I think "Native Tongue" pretty much nails it in those categories (not to mention I'm a total linguistics and language nerd so I love the word play in this song). It's also interesting because it's kind of in-your-face in an almost Foo Fighters way (though dialing it back toward Goo Goo Dolls), but it's about love. That's pretty creative/original if you ask me.

In any case, here are the lyrics (from AZ), for your convenience, as you listen to the song again ;)

Sing to me, baby, in your native tongue
Sing the words of the wise and the young
Show me the place where your words come from
Love is the language, love is your native tongue

Feel your heartbeat bang the drum
Open up your eyes and fill your lungs
The same word from where the stars are flung
Love is the language, love is your native tongue

My heart is a beating drum
My head in oblivion
My soul, such a long way from
My lips, my lungs, my native tongue

My friend, where did we go wrong?
My Lord, we forgot our sound
My soul, such a long way from
My lips, my lungs, my native tongue

(Oh-woah-oh-woah-oh)
(My native tongue)
(Oh-woah-oh-woah-oh)
(My native tongue)

Sing it to me, whisper into my ear
Accuser's voices start to disappear
In the wind, in the tongues of the flame
In my soul, in my one true name, oh

Back before we learned the words to start a fight
Back before they told us that the haters were right
He spoke the truth, "let there be" and there was
Love is the language, love is your native tongue

My heart is a beating drum
My head in oblivion
My soul, such a long way from
My lips, my lungs, my native tongue

My friend, where did we go wrong?
My Lord, we forgot our sound
My soul, such a long way from
My lips, my lungs, my native tongue

So sing it loud, get loud, get
Louder than the voices in the crowd, yeah
Even when they tried to drown you out, eh
Your lips, your lungs, your native tongue

So sing it out, get loud, get
Louder than the darkness and the doubts, eh
Louder than the curses and the shouts, yeah
Your lips, your lungs, your native tongue

(Oh-woah-oh-woah-oh)
(Oh-woah-oh-woah-oh)

My heart is a beating drum
My head in oblivion
My soul, such a long way from
My lips, my lungs, my native tongue

My friend, where did we go wrong?
My Lord, we forgot our sound
My soul, such a long way from
My lips, my lungs, my native tongue

(Oh-woah-oh-woah-oh)
(My native tongue)
(Oh-woah-oh-woah-oh)

I want the world to sing in her native tongue
To sing it like when we were young
Back before the pendulum had swung to the shadows

I want the world to sing in her native tongue
Maybe we could learn to sing along
To find a way to use our lungs for love and not the shadows

I want the world to sing in her native tongue
To sing it like when we were young
Back before the pendulum had swung to the shadows

I want the world to sing in her native tongue
Maybe we could learn to sing along
To find a way to use our lungs for love and not the shadows