SWITCHFOOT - BEAUTIFUL BUT FAR FROM A LET DOWN

Thu 20 Mar 2003

a glowing review of Switchfoot's new album Beautiful Letdown. A warning - I love it!

SWITCHFOOT - BEAUTIFUL LETDOWN

Jon 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” RE:THINK label which also gave us another reason for CCM to exist; Sarah Masen.

That debut, The Legend Of Chin, was pleasant enough but the chances of the band getting a fourth album never mind making one as strong as this was never too certain. After a couple of songs on the movie soundtrack for the rather saccharine movie Walk To Remember last year Switchfoot are now signed to Columbia who maybe see them in Lifehouse territory. This album has the material if the major label has the clout to exploit it. It may be that Lifehouse are soon headings back into the Christian arena with their heart still drawn towards worship as Switchfoot pass them in the night towards a mainstream impression.

Surfer boys, Switchfoot (a surfer term) are on Beautiful Letdown riding higher and harder waves with a sense of balance that is literally poetry in motion. This is articulate stuff wrapped up in the radio friendliest of what now goes under the genre moniker “emo”. In the press releases Foreman is quoting Einstein and TS Elliott as well as referencing Physics and Surfer movies! The opening Meant To Be is an indication of the themes throughout though musically it is a little edgier and harder in sound than much of what follows. Foreman is asking what went wrong with mankind, why have we not fulfilled our potential and what might be done to put things back in order. It is an objective interrogation of mankind in its broadest sense but it is also a subjective look inside himself to see what he is made for.

No let up on the interrogation on track two; “This is your life/Are you who you want to be/ Is it everything you dreamed that it would be/When the world was younger and you had everything to lose.” Gone is a torrent of humour and poignancy, throwaways and name checks all those things that have caused the messed up state that everything else here is about:

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,
Life is more than fame and rock and roll and thrills.
All the riches of the kings end up in will
We've got information in the information age
But do we know what life is outside of our convenient Lexus cages?

Adding To The Noise punks up the symptoms and diagnosis:

“that T.V. set
Tells us what we've wanted to hear
But none of these sound bites
Are coming in clear
From the third world to the corporate ear
We are the symphony of modern humanity”.

We need help and so Redemption looks for what the title suggests and heads to the Christian place of hope as the singer in his vulnerable authenticity sings, “I got my hands at redemptions side/These scars are bigger than, these doubts of mine.” The title track veers more towards the ballad but comes with a warning that you will be singing along to it all day long. It is about the amazement of grace, the mystery of our screwed upness is soothed with mercy.

The one liners and rhyming couplets abound. Clever and witty but detonating where they should:

“Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over”

“Easy living, you're not much like your name
Easy dying, you look just about the same.”

“If we're adding to the noise
Turn off this song.
If we're adding to the noise
Turn off your stereo, radio, video...”

“I wrestled the angel
For more than a name”

Philosophy and theology beautifully argued and the skill of the artform is that as he points his finger in the very eye the hopeless condition that we all share he leaves us not cringing in shame but inspired to make it different as the remixed song from Learning To Breathe, Dare You To Move encourages, “I dare you to move/I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor.” Too many great songs to mention. Too many choices for radio singles. This is a classic Christian rock album happening right now!