The Beautiful Letdown
by Switchfoot
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Switchfoot bestography
The Beautiful Letdown is ranked as the best album by Switchfoot.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to The Beautiful Letdown on YouTube
The Beautiful Letdown track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Beautiful Letdown rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | fabm0 | List 2003 | 100/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 1701-1800 | 20/100 | - |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Music Albums of 2003 | 67/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  RasmV | Top 65 Music Albums of 2003 | 63/65 | 0 |
| 2026 | craab | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 78/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Top 18 Music Albums of 2003 | 6/18 | 4 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Top 43 Music Albums of 2003 | 38/43 | 1 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Platinum year 2003 | 97/100 | - |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 71/100 | 6 |
| 2026 | blueandthemoon | Top 83 Music Albums of 2003 | 59/83 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 70 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 250 | |||
The Beautiful Letdown collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 57 members
The Beautiful Letdown ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 150 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/01/2026 09:22 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,666 | 70/100 |
| ! | 02/22/2026 13:17 |  Milhaud | 2,156 | 71/100 |
| ! | 12/05/2024 01:13 |  slatsheit | 2,069 | 81/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 67.5/100, a mean average of 67.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 67.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 23.4.
The Beautiful Letdown favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 16 members
Forum mentions
Romanelli 06/08/2026 20:00 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
BestEverAlbums 12/01/2024 17:00 in Monthly overall chart movements BestEverAlbums 11/01/2024 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movementsThe Beautiful Letdown comments
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The greatest christian rock album of all time. (Edited)
sssvnnn 02/17/2022 17:01 | #281459
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jqyelton0216 09/25/2017 04:51 | #198696 | TOP COMMENT
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This album still holds up after all these years. (Edited)
slurpdurp 02/16/2017 23:41 | #185785 | TOP COMMENT
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This album surrounded me growing up and still almost does, despite me rarely making a conscience effort to listen to it. The impact that The Beautiful Letdown had in Christian culture was almost comparable to the impact the Nevermind had in mainstream culture. All of my friends and I knew every single. We heard them at school and on every Christian radio station for years. The songs were in every Christian movie ever made and the album was almost impossible to find in the Christian book stores. This album made such a huge impact on me and all my friends. We grew up with it whether we knew it or not. We still know all the lyrics and all the songs. The popularity has died down recently (It only took about ten years), but it is still the greatest Christian rock album ever recorded and it will forever set the standards for the future of Christian rock. The only album that comes close is By God by Disciple, but The Beautiful Letdown is miles ahead of anything to ever be released in terms of impact, legacy, and quality. (Edited)
slurpdurp 01/20/2017 18:21 | #183574 | TOP COMMENT
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One of - if not the best - Christian music albums of all time. Its legacy lives on. (Edited)
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