
Jon Bellion’s genre-swap cover of the 2003 post-grunge song “Meant to Leave” has a forward-moving impetus that will make anyone’s ears perk up. Whereas The Beautiful Letdown original was gritty a la Shinedown, Bellions recreation is orchestral, ethereal, and poppy all at the same time. The vocals have a pleasant dose of autotune, while still keeping the singer’s crystal-clear tone at the forefront of the song. From the bed of sound that is created at the beginning to the hold-your-breath pause in the middle, you’ll be surprised by this one.
Jon Bellion’s cover has been shared on Switchfoot’s YouTube, paired with a crisp music video that shows sweeping images of family, working, hardship, and love. “Meant to Live” ends with a resolved-feeling, lush chord, leaving us feeling like we’re both at the end and just at the beginning…
“A few months ago, the band and I sat down in the studio to listen to the final mix of the song, (“Meant to Live – Jon Bellion Version”). When the strings faded out we sat in silence, stunned by how moving the piece of music was. A few days later, Jon Bellion and I were texting about the song —how it conjured images in our minds, begging to be used in a trailer for a great movie. We came to the conclusion: “Why not do it ourselves, spend our own money to make a music video that felt like it conveyed the emotion we felt.” We called James Winterhalter and Joseph Larkin (the makers of the video) to see if they could pull off a short film in only a couple of weeks. They said let’s go! So that’s what this music video is: a self-funded passion project. A short film about a man, caught between his past and his future, discovering that he still gets to choose. “We want more than the wars of our fathers… Somewhere we live inside.” – Jon Foreman of Switchfoot