Greatest Hits Too Soon

Just over a decade into their musical career, Switchfoot has decided to release their first greatest hits album.  Titled "The Best Yet," this 18 track CD is set to release on November 4, 2008.  The 5-member band has released 6 albums dating back to 1997, but didn't receive major notice until 2003's "Beautiful Letdown," which went double-platinum by selling 2.6 million copies.

Congratulations on your successes thus far and good hopes for continued success, but isn't it a bit early to release a greatest hits album?  They've only been in the major spotlight for 5 years and this is reflected by the lineup of "The Best Yet."  One-third of the album is from "The Beautiful Letdown" and 5 others from "Nothing is Sound" and "Oh! Grav

ity."

In no way am a bashing Switchfoot; I'm a big fan of "The Beautiful Letdown" and love some of their lyrics.  I was fortunate to see Switchfoot live with Relient K back in February and they put on a great show.  But my point is that they should have waited a bit before they put out a compilation album.  I don't see Switchfoot's popularity hitting a major decline any time soon, so they should have taken some time to work on another great album (don't force it though - put some more thought and depth into the lyrics) and once the music track library is a bit bigger, then pursue a greatest hits album.  One of my favorite bands is DC Talk, and they have put out seemingly 20 greatest hits albums.  If Switchfoot doesn't watch out, they'll run the same trend and soon they'll have more greatest hits albums than they do regular albums.