Review Summary: Well, for use of a better, intelligent word... poo
This will just be a short review basically to just say how immensely disappointed I was with this album. Pointless, you say? Not true my friends. I downloaded the album off iTunes because I live in a small derelict town with no real decent shops unless you go to Oxford or Reading and as that was happening I couldn't help looking forward to it a lot. I was like yaaaay!
This is despite the fact that since the mint The Colour and The Shape, an album that I regard as far and away their finest work in their career, they have just not produced anything close to those standards since, and it's been 10 years now. Still TINLTL Was a reasonable album, One by One was just awful after the first few tracks (which they admit themselves) and In your honour was, in my opinion, a mediocre album lacking in any depth and creativity over the extensive 21 songs.
However there's just something about the Foos that makes you still want to listen to their new material, and for me it was through the hope that they could finally recreate the brilliance of their sophomore 1997 masterpiece.
Once the album was downloaded and i'd listened to the first 2 or 3 songs after "The pretender" which I'd heard enough of from its overly frequent plays on MTV2 and Scuzz I just thought "it's just not doing it". My initial expectations were that it would be bascially the same old generic uncomplicated foo fighters with a good smattering of softer ballads but hopefully with a bit of variation this late in their careers. It wasn't to be. Not only are the songs just extremely "ok" and reasonable but Grohl's lyrical performance sounds kind of lame in most songs. notably "The Pretender"and "Long road to Ruin" are falling short lyrically, although it's kind of hard to explain exactly why, something's just slightly, well, rubbish really.
The main problem i have is the way that a lot of the choruses seem to be somehow restricted by gil Norton's production. The most obvious example is with the single "The Pretender", where you expect a loud breathtaking chorus but it just struggles to kick off the way it should, especially with the guitars.
Overall, it's incredibly underwhelming, no stand-out tracks, restricted guitars, and the band have gone stale. Controversial? Don't care. Don't buy unless you're a fan. I may not have said too much about how it sounds but you can give it a try and make your own mind up. Plus I'm hungry
Rant over. get back to your dinner lads/ ladies
