Switchfoot's 'The Beautiful Letdown' Helped Catapult the Band's Message to the Mainstream World (BreatheCast Throw Back Thursday)

Here is a look back to an album that changed this Christian Rock band's life forever. This throw back Thursday features Switchfoot's major label debut album, The Beautiful Letdown.

The Beautiful Letdown, released in 2003 propelled Switchfoot into mainstream fame. The recognition came after some of the band's songs appeared on the soundtrack of A Walk to Remember. Following the success of The Beautiful Letdown, the band released a compilation titled The Early Years: 1997-2000, which featured their first three-indie albums.

Switchfoot came into the mainstream music scene with passionate songwriting that was inspired by their personal thoughts and faith.

This album sold over 2.7 million copies in the U.S. and was certified double platinum, and was featured on Billboard'Hot 200 Albums of the Decade. Switchfoot's singles received huge mainstream radio airplay with "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move." The song "Gone" received major airplay on Christian radio stations as well.

ALBUM TRACK LISTING:

1. Meant to Live
2. This Is Your Life
3. More Than Fine
4. Ammunition
5. Dare You to Move
6. Redemption
7. The Beautiful Letdown
8. Gone
9. On Fire
10. Adding to the Noise
11. Twenty-Four


Switchfoot's lead singer and songwriter, Jon Foreman spoke to christianmusic.about.com about his inspiration for their popular hit "Meant To Live."  

"A while back I read a TS Elliot poem called 'The Hollow Men.' The imagery in the poem continues to haunt me: 'we are the hollow men/ we are the stuffed men...' I look at our planet and I see a horrible, beautiful world... where love and hate breathe the same air. This is where we wake up everyday; this is where we live. Maybe the kid in the song is me, hoping that I'm bent for more than arguments and failed attempts to fly. Something deep inside of me yearns for the beautiful, the true. I want more than what I've been sold; I want to live life."

Listen to the full album here.