Switchfoot: The Beautiful Letdown
Having traveled from despair to surrender and from a struggle for consistency to hope, Switchfoot showcases the journey itself in The Beautiful Letdown. “Meant to Live� raises some of the same questions that peppered Chin: “Have we lost ourselves?...Maybe we’ve been living with our eyes half open, maybe we’re bent and broken.� “This is Your Life� can be boiled down to a life-altering question: “are you who you want to be?� How does someone make that kind of decision? It must come from knowing what matters most and by comparing yourself to that standard.
Switchfoot starts back toward the center by urging people to take responsibility for their actions. In “Ammunition,� Foreman sings that we as a community are the problem, that we can’t blame our issues on other people but must recognize that we’ve butchered love itself. To reassert love, “Dare You to Move� is reintroduced on this disk (see above comments) and immediately followed with “Redemption,� and this shameless allusion to the Jesus’ appearance to Thomas (Gospel of John, Ch 20): “I’ve got my hand in redemption’s side/Whose scars are bigger than these doubts of mine.� This act of redemption by Jesus Christ for the disciple who admitted his doubts also leads to “The Beautiful Letdown,� recognizing that we can’t make it on our own, that fame and fortune aren’t enough, and that we are called to share what we know to be true.
The second half of Letdown also touches on prior Switchfoot themes. “Gone,� resumes the battle cry for the love movement, even referencing U2’s Bono for his efforts in drawing attention to the AIDS epidemic in Africa through DATA. In “On Fire,� the passion for living clearly comes from an intimate encounter with a “you� outside of self, possibly a romantic ideal but more probably God. And “Adding to the Noise,� the band encourages turning off whatever static is keeping their listeners from taking action.
Finally, for a final Biblical hurrah, Letdown closes out with “Twenty-Four,� which serves as a complete package of what Switchfoot has sung all along. Beginning with many illustrations of how the singer is dead last, and filled with many excuses for his own problems, it quickly turns to seeking the help of “Spirit.� Foreman writes that “you’re raising the dead in me,� once again referencing the resurrection of Christ but this time he places himself in the narrative by calling himself the ‘second man’(Luke 23)— the man who accepted Christ as he prepared to die next to him on the cross. Foreman also references Genesis 28 as well, where Jacob wrestles with the angel and becomes Israel, with a new name and a new identity. He does recognize that he wants more than a name, a cause, or a feeling, he wants a relationship with this Spirit that gives him the song to sing, and provides him with new life.
- Meant to Live - MP3
- This Is Your Life - MP3
- More than Fine - MP3
- Ammunition - MP3
- Dare You To Move -MP3
- Redemption - MP3
- Beautiful Letdown - MP3
- Gone - MP3
- On Fire - MP3
- Adding To The Noise - MP3
- 24 - MP3
In Conclusion
Having listened through the albums back-to-back, I’ve heard the changes that Switchfoot has made as they’ve matured into a rock and roll band for the 21 st century. From grunge and hard(er) core to guitar driven poprock, Switchfoot’s sound is more pleasing to the ear and the lyrics have deepened and broadened over time. Even more, the ideas that the group have wrestled with have become more complicated and more everyman as the group aged. No longer ‘merely’ dealing with depression and human relationships, the group has taken their sound out of the garage band/youth group audience to the broader scale ‘out there.’ Along with their need to bring the sound further has come a need to see their growing fame and fortune put to good use: for the good of those in need and to the glory of God who is “raising the dead� in all who listen.
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