Wishful thinking

Collection of Switchfoot highlights leaves thirst for more | Arsenio Orteza

Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/AP

As far back as 1975, when Bachman-Turner Overdrive released The Best of B.T.O. (So Far), the appending of qualifiers to the titles of pop-music compilations has seemed dangerously presumptuous: The parenthetical "So Far" notwithstanding, B.T.O. never had another hit.

One hopes a similar reception does not await Switchfoot in the aftermath of the similarly titled The Best Yet (Columbia/Legacy), a new collection of highlights spanning the group's entire 11-year career. One reason for pessimism is that, in leaving Columbia to pursue independence, Switchfoot risks encountering the same relative obscurity to which most other top-selling acts that took the same route have been relegated. The bureaucratic structure of major labels is notorious for the many ways in which it can impede artistic creativity, but there's still nothing like corporate PR—not even internet-based networking—for bringing a band's music to the attention of the masses.