The Beautiful Letdown - Letdown to who?
Written: Jul 17 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The boys are back and with a fresh new sound...and a new band member!
Cons: Depends on how like it when a band varies their styles for each song.
The Bottom Line: The Beautiful Letdown is another great example of the prowess and skill of these guys. This is an album that any person, fan or not, should definitely not miss.
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| LifeStar's Full Review: The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot |
Sorry to let y’all down…
Can it be? Can it really really be? LifeStar is back and he has a new review?!
Yes, I’m back. Life has been super busy during the last few months with job hunts, graduations, and even apartment hunting. Life right now is calming down and I’m getting ready to join the working world starting in August. Ain’t it grand?
Even though I haven’t been writing new music reviews, don’t worry, I’ve still been listening to a lot of music. I feel kinda overwhelmed as I do want to write about all the albums I’ve been listening and accumulating, but there is only so much time for everything. Hopefully I’ll get through the very urgent ones first before I tackle any others.
Time for a beautiful letdown…
So I’ve become a Switchfoot fan apparently. Ever since Learning To Breathe, I’ve been listening to them faithfully. So when their new album, The Beautiful Letdown was coming out to the stores, you betcha I reserved myself a copy.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect though. The band has gone through some recent changes, such as the addition of a new band member, Jerome Fontamillas. Other changes include their hairstyles, clothes they wear and other non-essential details. Also their musical style has changed a bit, apparently brought by the new band member, that has echoes of Third Eye Blind one friend commented.
Even with all these changes, Switchfoot still sounds awesome!!! The musical execution is still tight; the vocals are still very provoking; the lyrics are just as profound; and on top of it all, they’re actually getting noticed! I was flipping through the channels at night and then I see this 4-person band that looked strangely familiar… Yup, I saw Switchfoot on the Tonight Show!
Who is Switchfoot?
Switchfoot are made up of four guys from the west coast side, specifically from the San Diego, CA area. The band is broken up as follows:
Chad Butler: Drums & Percussion
Tom Foreman: Bass, Backing Vocals, Keys
Jon Foreman: Guitar, Lead Vocals, Keys
Jerome Fontamillas: Keyboard and Guitar
Though there are only four guys & the instrumentation is pretty basic and simple, they really do create a large sound. Essentially, Switchfoot is a great example of what a guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard can create when in the hands of skillful musicians. Even with simple instruments, the guys have been able to churn out on these songs a lot of different sounds that can tickle one’s ears easily. Though it is easy to hear how they’ve been experimenting with new intros and sounds.
Another plus about this band is that they are part of a dying breed group of musicians who actually write their own music. It’s a dying art I’ve been noticing in the music arena, both Christian and non-Christian. Of course, this may be why these unique groups have been thriving and creating strong fan bases because the songs are personal, real, and applicable from the musicians themselves.
Either way, one can find very little reason to not like Switchfoot. Their songs are deep and applicable to many walks of life. The subtly that they throw into their music and different terminology is a breath of fresh air as they help clear up the sometimes confusing fog of religious jargon that comes up at times. It’s still the same Truth, just spoken in a manner that people can get a stronger grasp of.
Song Reviews: Skip down if you just want my concluding thoughts
Meant To Live - As we begin our new journey with Switchfoot, we hear the beginnings of a powerful song. The listener is treated to a duel electric guitar intro, with each guitar alternating between each other. Eventually after the first 6 seconds, the rest of the instruments, including the drums, bass, and a mixed in third electric join the music. The definite driving forces of this song are the electrics and followed closely by the drums.
The message of this song is very clear and is reminiscent of I Dare You To Move that the band did in their last album. Here instead of giving a challenge to the listener, they tell the story of a guy who just seems to not be getting life. Things he tries and circumstances just don’t work out. He knows that there must be more to this life he’s living and that something is not totally in sink with this world.
The premise of Meant To Live doesn’t sound all too new. Even movies have gotten into this theme, A La Matrix. However, the thing I’ve been wondering about this song is whether the band got their inspiration for this song from Matchbox Twenty’s Bent. In Bent, the singer is asking a person to help restore him, or fix him. Life in the world, and other circumstances has left him broken and bent. Here in Switchfoot’s song, we are shown a guy who is pretty much bent up, and left wondering what is there to live for in life. Who knows…maybe I’m thinking too deeply…
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
This Is Your Life - If you’re one of those types who love their bass extra rich, then this is the song for you. For a pure 15 seconds or so, we have the strongest electric bass solo I’ve heard recently. It establishes a very sweet beat and rhythm that runs throughout the rest of the song. Of course, the other instruments join in, especially a very twangy acoustic guitar. However, the stealer of the bass’s thunder has to be Jon’s vocals that are unusually high for a guy. Seriously, I can never sing Switchfoot songs without hurting my vocal cords…
This Is Your Life is a continuation of the theme from Meant To Live. Here the band is asking the question of whether the way our lives (The listeners) are what we dreamed them to be. In other words, are you who you wanted to be when you were younger?
Thought provoking question isn’t it? Many of us have taken paths and made decisions that we didn’t think would affect us like the way they have. For example, I originally thought that I would become some sort of paleontologist (A guy who studies dinosaurs), but over time I made decisions that eventually put me down this geeky techie career path. In the end, this is what I think would have fitted me better as an individual. However, with that knowledge now of how my life choices in the past have affected me, what will I do with my future life choices?
This is your life
And today is all you’ve got now
And today is all you’ve ever have
Don’t close your eyes
More Than Fine - We now take a backseat from the heavy synergy driven songs and reach back to Switchfoot’s more lackadaisical songs. This song is a great demonstration of how interesting the band can be when they mix in different sounds. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the start tone of a modem, kids in a playground, and other various sounds. Besides that, the instrumentation is pretty much standard, but a primary focus on just the vocals as Jon is giving off the feel that he’s in a teacup ride.
More Than Fine is also a continuation of the theme from the past two songs. Here the singer is letting us know that he’s not satisfied with how life is. Not that his life is terrible, it’s actually pretty good, but he wants more. He wants more than just being ok. He wants something more and he knows he can get it.
More than oceans away from the dawn
More than oceans away from who we are
More than oceans, more than oceans
More than fine
Ammunition - Now we pick up the pace with Ammunition. It seems that Switchfoot has also been doing some experimenting with intros to their songs. For this one, we are treated with almost a 30 second intro by just the drums. After that, we get into a spunky vibe from the band. Honestly, this song reminds me of something that The All-American Rejects might play. A strong infusion of electrics and of course… vocal prowess that would shame any girl…
Ammunition delivers the message that one of the reasons why things in our world are just really messed up is because of ourselves. We in a sense are stocks of ammunition, gun power, dynamite, that is just waiting to be set off. The sad fact is we try to blame our condition and our problems on everything except ourselves. No responsibility for our actions and the hurts we inflicted to each other.
I have no generation
Show me my motivation
One world one desperation
One hope and one salvation
Dare You To Move - This is another new studio version of the famed I Dare You To Move. Like Divad23, I’m not totally sure why the guys felt they needed to put this song on this album. It seems to a bit of an overkill of a really great song. Anyhows, I don’t feel a need to go into this song since I talked about it in my Learning To Breathe album review.
The only difference with this version is that it’s tamer in comparison to the original version. Jon takes his time to enunciate each word this time for the song. Besides hearing each word clearly now, there isn’t much else different with the song.
Redemption - We return to the lackadaisical mood set with Redemption. It’s pretty much the same formula of instruments as in More Than Fine, but there is an interesting intro to the song. It sounds like they used a broken acoustic guitar with one string loose, to make the intro. Elsewhere, the drums with the electrics restrained in the background are the driving forces of this song. I can definitely see people coming up with weird dance moves for this song.
Redemption is a clever way to talk about the salvation provided by Jesus. The singer essentially is pointing out that by the scars and the pierced side, he has a new life from them. Of course, that involves leaving all of these monstrosities inside redemption’s side.
I’ve got my hand in redemption’s side
Whose scars are bigger than these doubts of mine
The Beautiful Letdown - Here is the treatise of the album. The Beautiful Letdown is a very unique song in comparison to the rest of the album’s songs. It has a very cool, jazzy feel to it as Jon stresses his vocal cords here. With the addition of a pseudo-gospel choir in the background, we complete the picture to one of Switchfoot’s unique/strangest songs.
The Beautiful Letdown exposes how any practicing believer will always found this world a great letdown. It’s not our home and it’s not where we belong. In reverse, the practicing believer is also a letdown to this world. We don’t meet expectations and we won’t conform to how this world perceives a successful life. The Church is ultimately a place for all the losers, fools, failures, and the trash of this world. Ironically, it is here that those very persons can become the greatest ever.
I’ll be a beautiful letdown that’s what I’ll be forever be
And though it may cost my soul I’ll sing for free
Gone - Here we are presented with another Weezer imitation from the band. This song is probably one of the silliest songs I’ve heard from them, but at the same time, it can get you to think a bit. It’s more of a continuation of This Is Your Life, but the premise here is simply about how life passes by so quickly. The things we take for granted and believe will always be true is just bogus. Things will change and our circumstances will ultimately lead to things we never expected. Everything we have will one day be gone.
The best part of this song is when we get into the closing minute, when we have John go into this long rendition of things that have gone away. Examples include Elvis, childhood sweethearts, Al Pacino’s cash…
Life is more than money, time was never money
Time was never cash, life is still more than girls
Life is more than hundred dollar bills and roto-tom fills…
On Fire - Here we are treated with a bona fide ballad from the band. The most moving parts of this song are Jon’s vocals and the emotions that are conveyed through the song. They also did some nice work with the piano use and vocal processing to give a more airy feel to the vocals in the song.
On Fire has the singer speaking to two persons. The first is us, the listeners, as he lays it down straight. The world has told us to do and be certain things. However, for those of us, who have been close to God’s touch, His Fire, we definitely know there is more to this life. We desire to have real intimacy with people and with Him because it is something that the world really cannot imitate at all.
The second person is to God Himself as the singer is acknowledging his own need for Him. The strongest indication of this is the bridge when Jon is plainly saying that he’s reached the end of himself. There’s no one else that can help him, not even himself, that can get him past the edge of himself. The only one who can transcend our own abilities to reach into our hearts is really the Creator of those hearts.
This has become one of my favorite Switchfoot songs because of the honest truth here. When everyone and everything has failed me, the one I know ultimately that can reach me, even in those dark places, is Him. He is the very one who is strong enough, wide enough, and bold enough to go to where I am and rescue me.
I’m standing on the edge of me…
Adding To The Noise - After the tearjerker, we return to some silliness with Adding To The Noise. Nothing too complicated here. We are just given the good old electric guitar rock and the silliness that the band can turn out very easily.
Adding To The Noise is silly, but bold at the same time. The point of the song is that if the band is simply just another band that is adding more noise to your life, then please, free feel to turn off the song. They don’t want to make things more confusing for the listener with how life works and all. If however, the band has helped to clear up some things for the listener, then of course, keep listening.
If we’re adding to the noise
turn off this song
Twenty-Four - Here we close off the The Beautiful Letdown with one last ballad from the band. The instrumentation is kept simple with the use of duel guitars and drums in the background. The band adds some vocal choruses in the song to give it a heavenly feel to it. Of course the weight of the song depends on Jon’s ability to convey the sense of a man who has reached an epiphany.
Twenty-Four deals with the new life that one can found in the redemption offered by Jesus. The promise of a new life, the renewal of the person who has believed is explained here in a beautiful fashion. It isn’t by our own ability do we live, it’s rather His Spirit’s ability to pick us up because we have died to our old lives. Thus when the Spirit takes up, we are in a sense made a “second man” now.
I want to see miracles
To see the world change
I wrestle the angel for more than a name…
Closing thoughts
The Beautiful Letdown is a perfect demonstration of the hard work and detail that this bands puts into their work. You will not find any lyrics just slapped around because they fitted the music. If need be, the music must fit the lyrics and points that this band is driving home. The wonderful thing about Switchfoot is, if you haven’t figured out already, is that they are a Christian band. They are proud of that and they won’t deny that. However, they have learned how to craft their music in a way that believing and non-believing can enjoy it. The key thing is, if the person is to really go into the lyrics and the reasons why certain phrases are there, then they will see a beautiful picture of grace, salvation, and a faith that is real when lived out in the lives of those who love their Lord Jesus.
Have you ever met a real On Fire who just lived out a life that is humble enough, unique enough, and yet strangely…powerful enough that he/she caught your attention? That is the driving point of this album. The believers are to be this and we may be a letdown to this world, but not to our Lord, and not to those who affected by us.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Driving
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Epinions.com ID:
LifeStar
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Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 86
Trusted by: 63 members
About Me:
11.06.06 - I'm sorta back, brand new review!!!
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