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The Beautiful Letdown is the fourth studio album by alternative
rock band Switchfoot. Released in early 2003, it
launched the band into the mainstream limelight on the strength of
two top 20 singles: "Meant to Live" (top 20) and "Dare You to Move"
(top 20). "This Is Your Life" was also released to mainstream
radio, while "More Than Fine" and "Gone" received airplay at CCM radio. The album was
hugely popular and remained a staple on the Billboard 200 album
charts for a considerable amount of time, and was eventually
certified double platinum by the RIAA for
selling over 2.6 million copies in the US alone.[1] It also
netted an Album of the Year award at the 2003 San
Diego Music Awards.[2]
Production
Recording
and history
In 2002, the band entered the studio to begin recording of the
follow-up to their 2000 gold record, Learning to
Breathe. They were unsigned at the time, their contract
with re:think Records/Sparrow having
expired with the completion of Learning to Breathe.
Bassist Tim Foreman
has said that "this was the most freedom we had ever felt while
tracking an album - no record labels, no distractions, just four
guys making the record we'd always wanted to make."
They finished recording in two weeks[4], but
shortly afterwards, were signed to the major record label Columbia
Records/Red Ink. This ultimately delayed the
release, as the label submitted the album for further mixing and
marketing. "Sony is a big battleship of a company," said lead
singer Jon Foreman.
"It takes a long time to turn it around. It's like parallel parking
a Buick."
It was finally released February 25, 2003 as The Beautiful
Letdown.
Music and
lyrics
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The album featured some of the band's most intricate work to
date, and featured a departure from the lo-fi indie rock sound of
their previous three albums. This shift to a more layered, heavier
rock sound with occasional electronica influences can be attributed
to the addition of long-time touring member Jerome
Fontamillas as a full-time band member. Contributing more to
the recording process by filling in with his added instrumental
versatility prompted Foreman to note, "I feel like Jerome is a
great team player. I mean the same thing where live he just kind of
fills in, is the same thing on the album. He's just a wonderful guy
to have around."
The sound was also influenced by the fact that "these were songs
that we'd played live countless times, songs that we'd lived with."
[5] "This
was also the most prepared we'd ever been for a record," bassist Tim Foreman has
commented.
Lyrically, the songs on the album speak of hope in spite of an
imperfect world. "The Beautiful Letdown is about real life: the
good, the bad, and the ugly," said Jon Foreman. "It's an honest
attempt to reflect on the great and terrible aspects of being
human, the tension of existence." [6] "Meant to Live"
expresses this in the lyric, "We were meant to live for so much
more/have we lost ourselves?/We want more than this world's got to
offer/We want more than the wars of our fathers."
The first few promotional copies of the album were printed with
the song "Monday Comes Around" on it. When the wide release version
went to print Foreman removed the song as he felt it didn't match
the tone of the album.
The song can now be found on the 2004 re-release of "The Beautiful
Letdown" on the accompanying DVD, on the b-side of the Meant to
Live vinyl single released, in copies of the Japan release of
Nothing Is
Sound, and in the 2007 iTunes Deluxe re-release of The
Beautiful Letdown.
Artwork
The guitar that appears on the album cover at the bottom of the
pool is actually a guitar that Foreman bought at a pawn shop in North Dakota. The
original intention was "to light it on fire, but the place wouldn't
let us light things on fire, so we were going to break it in half."
But after playing it a few times, Foreman became too attached to
it, thus leaving it intact at the bottom of the pool. The photo
used on the cover was taken at a "sketchy hotel" in North Los
Angeles.
An alternate cover exists with the wording being black instead of
white.
2004
CD/DVD release
In 2004, "The Beautiful Letdown" was re-released in two
different forms: A standard CD-only reissue featuring a slightly
tweaked audio mix, as well as new artwork, and a CD/DVD
package.
The CD/DVD edition featured a DVD that included a few
bonus-features, including the entire album in 5.1 Surround
Sound.
It also featured a Making of “Dare You to Move” video, as well
as Version 1 of the music video itself, an acoustic impromptu
performance of “On Fire,” and two previously unreleased bonus
tracks, “Monday Comes Around” and “Meant to Live (Live).” For some
reason, these bonus tracks were inexplicably included only on the
DVD, and not on the audio side.
2005 Dual
Disc release
In 2005, the album was released yet again, this time as a DualDisc. The audio side
remained the same as the 2004 re-issue, and the DVD side featured
all of the same features, but also included the second version
music video of "Dare You to Move."
2007
iTunes Deluxe Edition
A deluxe edition of the album was released by Sony on December 25, 2007 exclusively on iTunes.
It contained all the tracks on the previous releases, but included
these three bonus tracks, available for purchase for the first
time:
- "Monday Comes Around"
- "Dare You to Move" (alternate version)
- "Meant to Live" (Acoustic)
Track
listing
- "Meant to
Live" – 3:20
- "This Is Your Life" – 4:18
- "More Than
Fine" – 4:14
- "Ammunition" – 3:45
- "Dare You
to Move" – 4:15
- "Redemption" – 3:06
- "The Beautiful Letdown" – 5:20
- "Gone" – 3:45
- "On Fire" – 4:39
- "Adding to the Noise" – 2:50
- "Twenty-Four" – 4:52
Charts
and certifications
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 2004 |
U.S. Billboard 200 |
#16 |
| 2004 |
Top Internet Albums |
#16 |
| 2004 |
Top Christian Albums |
#1 |
| Country |
Certification |
Sales/shipments |
| United States |
Double Platinum |
2,600,000 |
| Canada |
Gold[7] |
50,000 |
Credits
and production
- Produced by - John Fields and Switchfoot
- Recorded by - John Fields
- Assistants - Erin Familia, Ted Reiger,
- Computers - Dorian Crozier, Mike Buzbee
- Mixing - John Fields, Jack Joseph Puig, Chris
Lord-Alge, and Tom Lord-Alge
- Cover Art - Kevo Sassouni
Additional
instrumentation
- Cello: Ameena Khawaja
- Violin: Stephan Hovsepian
- Keyboards: John Fields
- FX: John Fields
- Percussion: John Fields
In TV and
film
Many of Switchfoot's songs have been used in various TV shows
and movies. The WB's Smallville used This is Your Life and the 2007 film The Ultimate
Gift incorporated On Fire into one of its
scenes. Dare You To Move was also featured in an
episode of One Tree
Hill and the A Walk To
Remember soundtrack
References
External
links
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