Review Summary: "In your honor, I will die tonight....for you to feel ALLLIIIVVEEE!"
Before I began to write this, I asked myself a question. What should I rate this? I pondered between a GREAT (3.5) or a GOOD (3.0) and just couldn't make up my mind. I love Foo Fighters so this was pretty difficult. But then I asked myself another question. Yes, there are GREAT songs but on a whole, is it a great album? No. Therefore I settled on ranking this a fair 3.0.
Now in case you're unaware, this is a double album. But it's not an ordinary double album. No, the Foo Fighters do something different and make disc one a CD full of heavy and intense rockers that never let up (until the end, that is), while disc numero dos is filled with mellow, acoustic songs. This could work out, but sadly doesn't to the effect that everyone hoped. The first disc is good in the sense that most of the songs capture what we've come to know and love from these fighters of foo. The title track, "DOA", and "No Way Back" are great performances, while the sheer intensity and emotion of "Best Of You" builds up so much as Dave and the boys beat the snot out of anyone listening and leaving them broken and scarred. Just listen to lyrics like "Has someone taken the faith it's real, the pain you feel? Your trust you must confess? Has someone taken the best, the best, the best, best of you??" as Grohl screams his heart out all the way through. Sadly the album falls slightly after these great first four songs. "Resolve" is good but seems to drag on forever. "The Last Song" is partially good, but features a bland chorus. "Hell" is too short to be much of anything, but "Free Me" gets points for its great screaming by Grohl.
The second CD is actually pretty good. Granted some songs last too long ("Still", "Over and Out", "What If I Do") but are still great. "Razor" has a really cool guitar picking part, and even features Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age. Speaking of guest appearences, there are a few on here. Norah Jones guest vocals and plays piano on "Virginia Moon", and John Paul Jones stops by to play mandolin on "Another Round" and piano on "Miracle", the latter of which being a favorite that's truely beautiful. Dave Grohl brings back something from the Nirvana days, as "Friend Of A Friend" finally shuts up those critics who claim every FF song is "about Kurt". Like "Best Of You" on the first disc, part two has a standout track in the title of "Cold Day in the Sun". This one shows Taylor Hawkins performing lead vocals and even playing guitar. He really has a cool voice and I wish he'd sing more often. Really, there isn't a bad track on either of these records. Like I said some are great, and some are just...good.
KEY TRACKS:
-Best of You
-DOA
-No Way Back
-Cold Day in the Sun
-Miracle
~Pros~
-Dave Grohl
-Best Of You
-Guest musicians
-Taylor Hawkins singing
~Cons~
-Most songs are average
-Some run too long
-Not enough classics
-Having one heavy disc and one quiet disc can get boring
