New Way To Do Music

Coming in at No. 17 is one of the most revolutionary Christian albums of all-time...Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown.

What's so revolutionary is not that these guys got major major mainstream success with this album, but rather the way they approached their music. It's different than the way most mainstream groups approach their music, and flat out shocking in the world of Christian music (where most of it sounds the same.)

Switchfoot had recently added a fourth member, Jerome Fontamillas, to their already successful trio of San Diego surfer dudes. That added a new dimension which allowed the group to successfully erase a "Switchfoot sound." Their revolutionary approach was simply to look at each song and find what was best musically for that song...NOT to take a song and make it sound like how "Switchfoot" would play it. I find the resulting album incredibly refreshing. In fact, I reviewed the album when it first came out and KNEW that it would be majorly successful. It was.

I like every single song on "The Beautiful Letdown." That's rare. It doesn't even happen on all the CDs that I ranked above this one! Do I have A favorite? Yeah, tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8. Seriously, probably "More Than Fine" or "Dare You to Move."

OK, let me sumarize...I can't speak to the sonic genius of this album. The sound is simply amazing and unique and perfect for each song. And the lyrics? Check em out...

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life.
We were meant to live.

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here.