A Christian 'by faith, not by genre' You may have noticed the presence of Switchfoot's The Beautiful Letdown on my list of "now playing" CDs. I've had it on the list for several months now, and it's still in heavy rotation. The simple fact is, I really like Switchfoot's sound. I have two other Switchfoot CDs, Learning to Breathe and New Way to Be Human, both from the band's CCM days. Now, according to this New York Daily News article, Switchfoot is doing quite well beyond the walls of the Christian ghetto. "Switchfoot's latest album has been on the charts for 64 weeks, the longest run of any band in Billboard's Top 40. They've sold 1,140,996 CDs - roughly 906,000 of those for Columbia and 230,000 for Sparrow. More than a year after it first snuck onto the charts, 'Letdown' reached No. 18 this week.
The odd thing is, a couple of months ago one of the kids who occasionally attends our youth group commented during a discussion that she wouldn't listen to Switchfoot because the band is "secular." She had no idea of the band's Christian roots.