My Sunday Song – “Beautiful Disaster” by Jon McLaughlin

For My Sunday Song #451, we are going to talk about the pop ballad “Beautiful Disaster” by Jon McLaughlin. The song is off his 2007 album ‘Indiana’. The single was released in April of that year and was the first single on the album. It hit #28 on the Adult Top 40 chart and helped push the album to #81 on the Billboard 200 Chart. Jon wrote the song with the help of Jamie Houston and they penned a song that is extremely heartbreaking and yet beautiful at the same time.

“Beautiful Disaster” is about a woman who is so broken inside. She is beyond lonely as it seems she has been left many times before and is now extremely insecure. She doesn’t feel worthy and feels ugly on the inside and out. Everything in the world is telling her she’s not enough…the magazines, the guys who left her and if this was in the present time, the social networks would as well. No one has ever told her that she is perfect the way she is and it is okay to be who you really are not to pretend to be someone she’s not.

She hooks up with guys and does what they want just to feel something. She bends to their will as she is so desperate for a connection. But what she is really looking for is that someone that will take her home and love her for who she is. She simply wants to be Needed. The line…”She never stays the same for long / Assuming that she’ll get it wrong / Perfect only in her imperfection” summarizes how she feels that she has to act a certain way to be loved. It is all terribly sad.

Musically, the song is a soft and as delicate flower like the poor girl in the song is. The keyboards and orchestration are so dramatic and add to that ethereal feeling. The chorus is big and catchy and brings all the pain she is feeling out into the open. Jon McLaughlin’s voice is full of empathy and the sadness the lyrics are projecting. One of the most heartbreaking songs and still beautiful in every line and note.

Give the song a listen and let me know what you think. Is it the saddest song you’ve ever heard? If not, what would that one be for you? Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful and Happy Sunday! And remember, you are perfect the way you are and worthy of being loved. Be yourself and make no excuses for you!

“Beautiful Disaster”

She loves her mamma’s lemonade
Hates the sound that goodbyes make
She prays one day she’ll find someone to need her

She swears that there’s no difference
Between the lies and compliments
It’s all the same if everybody leaves her

And every magazine
Tells her she’s not good enough
The pictures that she sees make her cry

She would change everything, everything
Just ask her
Caught in the in-between
A beautiful disaster
She just needs someone to take her home

She’s giving boys what they want
Tries to act so nonchalant
Afraid they’ll see that she’s lost her direction

She never stays the same for long
Assuming that she’ll get it wrong
Perfect only in her imperfection

She’s not a drama queen
She doesn’t wanna feel this way
Only 17 but tired, yeah

She would change everything
For “happy ever after”
Caught in the in-between
A beautiful disaster
She just needs someone to take her home

She’s just the way she is
But no one’s told her that’s OK

She would change everything, everything
Just ask her
Caught in the in-between
A beautiful disaster

She would change everything
For “happy ever after”
Caught in the in-between
A beautiful disaster
She just needs someone to take her home
She just needs someone to take her home

Writer(s): Jonathan Michael McLaughlin, Jamie Houston