Switchfoot's big break came in 2001, when the band scored several songs on the Walk to Remember soundtrack. The general market took notice, and now waits to see what Switchfoot can come up with next. The answer is the album The Beautiful Letdown, which is their most mature and fully-realized work to date.
The title track tackles both celebrity and the idea of being "aliens and strangers", as frontman Jon Foreman sings "I was trying to fit in until I found out / I don't belong here." This personal realization is paralleled to the church later in the song, as Foreman tells us "We are a beautiful letdown / painfully uncool / the church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools / we are a beautiful letdown." "Ammunition" features a hook-filled chorus with just enough guitar grit to endear it to rock connoisseurs. "Gone" is a summer-style pop song that owes a nod to the Chili Peppers. "Monday Comes Around" is jaunty and optimistic, while "Adding to the Noise" bemoans the rapid pace of culture and says "If we're adding to the noise / turn off this song." Album closer "24" soars on a theme of God bringing life.
Switchfoot has been given a nice budget to work with, which may turn out to be a liability. While the album is filled with well-played pop/rock, it also sounds canned and devoid of emotion. A reliance on computer-generated beats rarely works, instead pushing the album toward more of a generic sound.
The band has reached where they've been trying to go. They're now a slightly-alternative pop outfit that has a technologically superior and tightly played album in The Beautiful Letdown. It's very accessible, and that may have been their goal. It's not a classic, but it's easily Switchfoot's best yet.
3.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Rebel Base 2003Reviewed by Josh HurstFormer President Calvin Coolidge once said that "the business of America is business." Well, if that's true, then the business of Switchfoot is crafting fun, profound, and delightfully edgy pop/rock, and the business of yours truly is writing remarkably cheesy opening paragraphs in his album reviews. You'll have to excuse my less-than-professional approach; when my copy of Switchfoot's latest,…The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Steve StockmanJon Foreman and his brother and mates have rushed the palaces of CCM and claimed the throne. Without arrogance or pride or even wanting to be, they have simply grown into the finest thing that exists in Christendom today. Fair play to Charlie Peacock who way back in 1997 discovered these Californian tanned boy band faces and conspired to launch them at the world on his "big idea/short lifespan"…The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by John WehrleWith the release of their fourth CD, The Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot sets sail on course of a new horizon. Based out of San Diego, California, the four-piece band has garnered quite a following and now has the ears of the world with their new management and deal with Columbia Records. Already known for being one of the coolest bands in Christian music, the new release takes them to an all new…The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Matthew WilliamsGreat. So here's another incredibly talented group of Christian musicians, too talented to be noticed by the mainstream market, suddenly being "discovered" by a major label and whisked away to a compound called a "studio." There, the recently "discovered" artists remain in confinement for a good two years and are given a budget (roughly the size of a small Central American country's gross…The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Olin JenkinsWhat's left to say that our previous writers haven't? Lots! Please read The Phantom Tollbooth's previous reviews of Switchfoot's The Beautiful Letdown to see that I'm simply underscoring that this band has hit an excellent stride! Yes! With the band on a dual course on both Sparrow and Columbia Records, I was surprised and pleased at the same time to hear "Meant to Live" one of the few times I…Similar sounding releases
2001Audio AdrenalineLift
2003downhereSo Much for Substitutes
2003By The TreeRoot
1998The NormalsBetter Than This
2004OverflowA Better Place
2004Smalltown PoetsIt's Later Than It's Ever BeenMore from Switchfoot
2005Nothing Is Sound
1999New Way To Be Human
2000Learning to Breathe
1997The Legend of Chin
2004Live in San Diego (Video)
