Whenever people say that the definitive Foo Fighters album is The Color and the Shape (which is quite rare, I might add,) i tend to argue with them. While The Color and the Shape is quite a fine album with some insanely catchy tunes, I believe the superior album would have to be their most ignored and under-rated. Formed in the mid-90's by ambitious Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, The Foo Fighters (aka Dave) quickly made a great record. The self-titled album has some undeniably catchy pop tunes (Big Me) and some growling guitar under Dave's somewhat bland voice (I'll Stick Around), as well as some disasterous song titles (For All The Cows). Equipping former Nirvana live guitarist Pat Smear and bassist Nate Mendel, The Foo Fighters were quickly sweeped up into the mainstream post-grunge path that Nirvana had paved before. Everything was going according to plan. They released their successful The Color and the Shape containing some great radio-hit tunes (Monkey-Wrench, Hey Johnny Park!, Everlong). Dave had come far from his Nirvana days. Two years later came the somewhat dissapointing There Is Nothing Left to Lost, which displayed the group at both their best (Stacked Actors) and their worst (too many to list). It seemed ol' Dave had lost his touch that made the Foo Fighters so desirable in the mid 90's.
Three years go by. There is no word of the Foo Fighter's planning to release a new album. Suddenly, the tuner-inners of MTV and MuchMusic saw the video for All My Life, quickly ran to the nearest CD shop and scooped up the newest disc, One By One, and listened to it with interest. Some dismissed it as another There Is Nothing Left to Lose, but others realized that the Foo's had matured through their weakness. The radio-friendly Low soared after All My Life, followed by Times Like These. Here is where we take time to identify the Foo's 2002 release.
The album has some extremely tense moments. From the opening palm-muted chords of All My Life, to the easy going chorus of Times Like These. Everything song has a really unique sound to it. The first two songs All My Life and Low are the first to come, with some wailing vocals over crunched guitars, chased by an eerily catchy chorus with Dave either screaming (One By One) or angst-riddenly smooth (Low). Followed by Have it All, a catchy dark-pop tune infested with distortion and intersting break-up vocals, one wonders what happened to the happy-go-lucky guys of Big Me and Monkey-Wrench. Dave really has matured his sound, and others will have a hard time acknowledging that. But I think that Dave and Co. had matured for the better. On such tracks as Lonely As You, Grohl's bite is worse than his bark, while the rest of the guys are hammering away at rough sounding power chords with some interesting changes in key, in the middle of the song. The outro for the album is arguably the greatest song on here. Come Back is a hard-rocking song that promises that the Foo's will be back (duh!), and that they promise to rock you harder more than ever before. But they've already achieved that goal on Come Back. Dave has some howling to do that he's been lacking on the album, and a breakdown with a couple acoustic guitars, held back drums, and hardly noticable bass, Come Back is the most infectious and dark song on the album, though it's message is relatively simple.
For the bad part of the album, you can barely make it out of such boring tunes as Overdrive and Burn Away, two songs influenced by either country-rock, or just boring 70's glam rock. Dave has some extremely poinless lyrics that would satisfy a 10th grade poetic dweeb, but otherwise some pretty acceptable lyrics about, uh, towns turning to dust, and keep on holding on to... it's unclear, but it's there nontheless. The music just keeps getting blander and blander, until you're rewarded with Come Back.
The Foo's maintain your interest in an ingenius way: dab out the bad tracks in random places, and put the best along the way, leaving you to listen too the whole thing.
Overall this is an excellent album, which both recaptures the honesty of The Color and the Shape, and has some new, darker aspects to it as well. The Foos are just phenomenal, and as much as I enjoy the other albums, I find that they're newest release, In Your Honor, takes on the role of being too boring in spots, and too rushed in the others. Thank you for reading!
Foo Fighters:
Dave Grohl
Nate Mendell
Chris Shiflett
Taylor Hawkins
Cheers!
