Foo Fighters
“We’re so kick-ass. It’s important that we represent our amazing chops and absolute rock supremacy.” – Dave Grohl
“Are they people who fight foo, or are they in fact foo that fights?” – Al
Albums Reviewed:
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
While Nirvana was hitting it big, little did people know that Dave “Just the Drummer” Grohl was toying away in his basement, writing songs of his own that he probably thought were forever destined to appear on random little indie tapes no one would ever care about. But then Courtney Love shot Kurt Cobain in an attempt to exploit his death for her own band’s personal gain, and Dave Grohl was left with an opportunity. And, lo and behold, he took full advantage of it, recording the Foo Fighters’ debut album by himself, in a week, before the idea of a band called the “Foo Fighters” even existed. The tape of the record was soon the center of a record company bidding war (oh, those record companies, they’re funny! Hee!), he signed with some company or other (who gives a fuck), recruited some guys to make it look like someone else besides himself played a note on the record, and released it with his new-found bandmates under the name “Foo Fighters.” And it was a hit! And there was much rejoicing (yay…). And then the band turned into a revolving door of sidemen carted in for the express purpose of playing live, as far as I know, because the Foo Fighters are and forever will be Dave Grohl’s personal play-thingy. But since Dave is one of the coolest individuals in the universe, that’s fine with me.
Musically,
the Foo Fighters are an anomaly, a consistently good
commercially oriented alternative rock band in the second half of the
nineties. What? Yes!
Such a band can exist! And leave
it to an ex-member of Nirvana to make it happen. Because Nirvana rules. Throughout the Foos’
career, Dave’s band has followed a clear pattern of becoming more and more
commercial and more and more slicked-over with each successive record, but only
recently has this led to the kind of drop in quality that has yours truly
worried, as One By One, compared to
this band’s other records, is nothing less than a glossed-over,
energy-deficient disappointment. The
self-titled debut was inconsistent, sloppy, and in some places seemingly
unfinished, but its followup, The Colour and the Shape, is an EXCELLENT
late-nineties classic, and the band’s third record, There is Nothing Left to Lose, is only a slight step down from
it. And then comes One By One, but let’s not talk about that yet, shall we? But even One
By One is supported by a fantastic opening single,
and that brings me to my second point about the Foos. They were, and are, an exceptional singles band. Just fantastic. For
nearly 10 years, they have been tearing up the modern rock radio dial, and
their songs, from “This is a Call” to “All My Life,” have deserved every second
of radio play they’ve gotten. The Foo Fighters are commercial, unoriginal, and have broken
down about as many musical boundaries as Maroon 5, but Dave Grohl
writes phenomenal, melodic, ass-kicking singles, and it’s really useless to
argue otherwise. Plus, as I said, he’s
just a cool guy! I’m convinced he uses
the Foo Fighters as his personal cash cow to finance
self-indulgent metal side projects with Ronnie James Dio
and allow himself to drum with
Talking about the Foo Fighters’ lineup beyond our friend Mr. Grohl is just about useless, but allow me to indulge myself for a bit. The only two people I could name before undertaking this page were original 2nd guitarist Pat “Pap” Smear (who joined Nirvana as their 2nd guitarist after In Utero was released and can be seen on their Unplugged in NY record) and drummer Taylor Hawkins, the blond dude with the ugly-ass mustache in the far left of your picture. The remaining fellows seen above are, as far as I can tell, bassist Nate Mendel in front and current 2nd guitarist Chris Shiflett between Nate and Dave (who’s on the far right). The original “lineup” (in quotes because, remember, Dave recorded the debut album by himself before even forming a band) contained Dave, Mendel, Smear and drummer William Goldsmith, and Franz Stahl briefly held the 2nd guitarist slot between Smear and Shiflett. However, musically, none of these people are at all interesting, and Dave writes and does everything as far as I can tell, so fuck ‘em. He doesn’t have the best singing voice in the world, but it’s not bad (it’s far better than Geddy Lee’s, for example), and he has nice range, as well as a fantastic “angst-filled scream,” which is always good. Alright, then.
And, onto the reviews!
Foo Fighters (1995)
Rating: 7
Best Song: “For All
The Cows”
The Foo Fighters’ debut album sounds exactly like you think it should sound, if you knew that Dave Grohl recorded it by himself in a week from the backlog of songs he’d built up while in Nirvana (because it’s not like he was gonna get much songwriting scratch there). That is, its production sounds a lot like a cross behind Nevermind Butch Vig pop glossiness and In Utero Steve Albini over-noisy roughness. The songs are firmly entrenched in the Nirvana-defined grunge aesthetic (i.e. distorted (but not too distorted) guitar choruses, often contrasted with light, less heavy verses, pop song structures, attempted big chorus hooks, the occasional melodical little softer gem (“Big Me”)). It has a handful of brilliant tracks, but very little cohesion, and a few songs sound underwritten or almost unfinished in places (also “Big Me”). All is as expected.
I guess the most surprising thing about this record, and about the Foo Fighters in general, is how good a songwriter Dave Grohl turned out to be. I mean, who knew? I sure didn’t! And if I didn’t, then obviously no one should have, because I am omniscient. But putting that aside, the problem Mr. Grohl has on this record is, basically, that it was recorded in a week without the thought of it being a finished record product, so it’s a little ramshackle. To a degree, this helps, because it’s easily the most “unprofessional” and least glossed-over of the Foos records, but at times the album is half-assed! Once you get finished with the radio-ready single triumvirate of tastiness at the beginning (the excellent opener “This is a Call,” the slightly weaker “I’ll Stick Around,” the extremely pretty but way too damn short “Big Me,” which is now being mentioned for the 3rd time already), the album does the predictable nineties thing and turns into a mush of good but forgettable alternative rock songs (with one exception). “Alone + Easy Target” is nice, and so is “Good Grief,” but that’s all I can recall about them. “They’re nice.” I enjoy the less-slicked-over guitars the songs employ, because this album presents Dave Grohl recording a bunch of random songs by himself instead of painstakingly constructing an album to sell units and get radio play, but eh. Cool sound, but a bit muddled, and slightly-less-than-perfectly-memorable songs.
The following “Floaty” is probably one of the better tunes here, and I like the sort of airy verses about whatever the hell they’re about (I honestly don’t care), but where’s the distinctness? “Weenie Beenie” does another predictable nineties rock thing and inserts a CRUSHINGLY HEAVY SONG WITH DISTORTED VOCALS about 2/3 of the way through the record for no apparent reason, because the songs that surround it (“Floaty” and “Oh, George”) are just, you know, nice songs. I always enjoy this record darn fine when I’m listening to it, but except for the singles and “Weenie Beenie,” not too much leaves a lasting impression when it’s done. I like it! It’s good! Nice songs and production, but I wish the entire 2nd half could be like “For All the Cows,” the GREAT single tucked neatly away at track 9 in such a way as to make your head jerk right back up in shock that this high-quality a song would be held off this long on a nineties alternative rock album, and then again when the MASSIVE, HARD-ROCKING CHORUS comes in. You know, this album hides behind all the typical mid-90’s grunge follower trappings, but every now and then Dave’s hard-rocking, ass-kicking heart comes out, and this is probably the best example of that. I love the little guitar run there, too. No simple power chord bashing here! Well, yeah, a good bit of that…but not ALL that! Good stuff.
Oh, there are three more tunes here? OK, sure, whatever. I actually don’t remember a single thing about them except that “Wattershed” sounds like it was written in 30 seconds, “X-Static” is slow, and “Exhausted” is kind of long (which I only remember because it says “5:44” right there in my Windows Media Player). I’ve always thought that Dave has given more than a few more shits about how commercially viable his band is than Kurt ever did, and therefore the pseudo half-assed qualities and muddy production of this album make perfect sense. It had only been like a year or so since Kurt killed himself, so was he gonna go and make a glossed-over heavy power pop record like he probably wanted to? No! He was gonna stick close to the Nirvana “grunge” roots (whatever those were supposed to be), make the production on his album halfway between Nevermind and In Utero, write a handful of killer singles, make some funny videos, and wait ‘til next time to unleash his true pop self. I just wish he had made more of an effort to make this one more of an album, instead of a bunch of songs tossed together, but eh. We’ll just wait for that.
The Colour And The Shape (1997)
Rating: 9
Best Song: “Monkey
Wrench”
What I love about this record is that it is, without a doubt, an album, instead of a random bunch of songs tossed together (Like the foreshadowing in my last review? Ofcourse you do! Now perform oral sex on me. It’s the only way I can be truly sure I can trust you, dammit!). The singles (which are uniformly phenomenal) are scattered throughout the album and surrounded by some serious ass-kicking hard rock, soft little interlude ditties, slower tunes, ballads, and just a generally effective, well-constructed, well-sequenced mix of songs. For instance, take how the album starts out. “Doll” is just a minute and twenty seconds long, but it still effectively lulls you slowly into the album, and even though its prelude is so short, the MONSTROUS, FAST, ASS-KICKING riff of the leadoff single “Monkey Wrench” is just something you’re completely unprepared for. That’s the kind of shit that gets me off (well, that and hot Asian women), when a band takes care to construct an album, and place songs together that effectively bounce off each other, flow into each other, and provide effective contrasts between each other. The fact that “Monkey Wrench” is four minutes of pure rock and roll adrenaline brilliance doesn’t hurt either, ofcourse, but its placement makes it even more effective.
The little drum lick that opens up “Hey, Johnny Park!” is an effective way to continue after “Monkey Wrench” as well, and the fact that it turns into an excellent song in its own right is just icing on the cake. Great, soft little verses and nice, heavy (but melodic and tasty!) choruses are found herein, and the quality of the album doesn’t really let up from there, except for maybe a few slight hiccups at the end. The guitars here are much more commercially slicked up and ready to go out on the town than on the debut, but it’s OK! First, because the material is of such good quality, second, because the material is sequenced so well, and third, because they’re not really “slick.” Just more slick than the debut. There’s a LONG way to go to get to “sapped of energy”-type guitar production, and the guitars here are clean and crisp, but still heavy and full of vitality. The almost metallic “Wind Up” is a great example of this. Only two and a half minutes, but still heavy as fuck, and with a phenomenal guitar solo tucked in there, the song is pure rock power, as are parts of the preceding “My Poor Brain,” which contrasts beautifully laid-back verses that almost give off a California beach-rock vibe with a vibrant, urgent chorus that has Dave screaming as loud as anywhere on the album, including “Monkey Wrench” and “Wind Up.” Then “Up in Arms” does that trick where a band plays the same thing twice, but the first half is all slow and melodic (like “Doll”), but then the second half just completely kicks your ass (like “Monkey Wrench”). I love it! And if you notice the two songs I mentioned as analogues for the two halves, you’ll guess that I love it because it’s essentially a microcosm of the opening of the album, and even the album itself. Dave consistently rocks the house on this record, but lets the audience let up and take a breath at just the right times. He knows what the fuck he’s doing.
The deservedly overplayed single “My Hero,” the album’s sure centerpiece, comes next, before segueing into the random little two-minute acoustic jaunt “See You” (another excellent sequencing move). “Enough Space” might be the record’s weakest moment (sounds too much like a random song from the 2nd half of the debut), but it leads into the Foos first attempt at a power ballad, “February Stars,” which is GREAT. It’s predictable in its soft-loud dynamics and its gradual transformation from soft, thought-provoking intro to crushingly heavy (yet still thought-provoking) ending, but Dave Grohl really had his shit together in 1997, so I enjoy the transformation as if it were unexpected. Then the transition from its fadeout into the quiet intro of single #3, “Everlong,” is yet ANOTHER brilliant sequencing move that I truly, truly appreciate. “Everlong” has probably become the most famous of the three singles from this album (all of which are justifiably still played on rock radio), but I actually think it’s the weakest (being, ofcourse, a relative term). “Monkey Wrench” rocks me out of my seat like few other songs from the last 5-10 years can do, and “My Hero” is just brilliant all the way through, so the very, very good song that is “Everlong” becomes just a very, very good song. And it’s also followed up by a pretty little acoustic thing! “Walking After You” might be a little underdeveloped, yes, but it sure is purty! And it shows the range of Dave’s voice, from full-on hard rock scream in “Monkey Wrench” and “Wind Up” and whatnot to this soft, subtle piece of prettiness. I actually think this song would’ve been a perfect ending to the record (“New Way Home,” the actual closer, is the 2nd quasi-weak link on the record), but, then again, what do I know? I’m not Dave Grohl.
So! A definite classic of strictly commercial
pop-hard-rock from the 2nd half of the nineties, and therefore
something rare indeed. But a classic it
is! Dave proves several things
here: First, when he wants to, he can
rock as hard as anyone in his
genre. Second, he can write some
absolutely KILLER hard rock singles (the ones on the debut were excellent, yes,
but they simply cannot touch “Monkey
Wrench” and “My Hero”). Third, he can
intelligently construct an album that
flows well from beginning to end, something that uses thoughtful sequencing to
build a fully-functional unit, and ends up being something more than the sum of
its parts, even if the sum of its parts is considerably high to begin
with. I never thought I’d be
recommending an album by the damn Foo Fighters as
high as I’m recommending this one, but I also never thought President Dubya could get himself reelected by doing absolutely
nothing to help anyone outside of Ken Lay and Jerry Falwell
and then simply lying to everyone about it and coating in all in a nice, thick
warning about “all them damn queers.”
Shit happens, I guess. And then
shit moves to
mtlhead@mchsi.com writes:
I
really agree with you. Although I think One By One deserves an eight (a 6?!? It
is soooo not VH1 whore music like Journey), I
definitely agree with you that this one is a nine. I’d have to say it’s better
than every Nirvana album (except for the modestly-selling album with a picture
of a naked baby chasing a dollar through a pool. I wonder what that’s supposed
to represent). Oh, and I caught your clever reference to Team
There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999)
Rating: 8
Best Song: “Breakout”
A definite step down from The Colour of the Smog, There is Nothing Left for Democrats to Do Except Completely Give Up Their Dignity in an Ultimately Futile Pursuit of Getting Votes From Anyone With an IQ Under 100 still provides a shockingly good and consistent listening experience when one considers its genre (commercially slicked-over alt-rock) and time period (late nineties). This is the kind of music that, if a band goes overboard in their middle-of-the-road VH1-whore tendencies (yes, they exist, and they’re just as insidious as MTV-whore tendencies), they might turn into Matchbox 20. But Dave was an integral part of fucking Nirvana, remember, so he a) knows when too slicked-over is too slicked-over and b) he knows how to write a damn song, so, even though this album continues the hyper-commercialization of the Foos sound and at times they go a little too far for my tastes, it’s still fun, rocking, melodic, and VERY FUCKING GOOD.
The exception to the rule here is the opener “Stacked Actors” (Someone’s been listening to Aladdin Sane recently, eh?), which greets you with one of the heaviest, dirtiest guitar tones you’re likely to ever find in a Foo Fighters song. It most definitely does not align with the sometimes scarily commercial tendencies of this record, and neither do its pissed-off lyrics (“stack dead actors, stacked to the rafters!”). It’s the kind of song that would make you think Dave Grohl is taking the massive radio success of Colour is a Stupid Damn British Wanker Spelling of “Color” and rejecting it wholeheartedly. But he’s so clearly not! He’s just fucking with you. Because the following track, “Breakout,” is basically a slightly more slicked-over carbon copy of “Monkey Wrench,” so therefore I love it very much, but slightly less than its ass-kicking model. As you should expect. Then possibly the most overtly VH1-whore-ish song of their career, “Learn to Fly,” comes next, but I like it a lot anyway! Dave Grohl knows how to write a brilliantly melodic alternative hard rock single. There were VERY few people around in the late nineties who could produce singles the quality of the Foo Fighters’. You don’t just roll out of bed and write “My Hero” or “Breakout.” You roll out of bed and write a fucking Matchbox 20 song.
If the Foo Fighters were an inferior band, at this point (i.e.
after the opening crushing loudness and two huge hit singles) their album
should start to suck opossum cock.
Thankfully, they’re not, and so “Gimme
Stitches” provides us with a seriously groovy
classic rock-ish riff and thankfully de-slicked good
time, although from here on out the
album starts to follow a path similar to the debut, i.e. a bunch of samey songs. But
with differences! One, the production is
much better (a bit on the slick side for me (not that that should surprise you,
given what I’ve said thus far) but still within the acceptable realm), and two,
the songs are just gooder! I’ve never been the hugest fan of
“Generator,” but it’s perfectly acceptable, and the remaining tracks are just
good, solid, late nineties rock (I know, it’s tough to picture that existing,
but just trust me). “Next Year” and “Ain’t it the Life” are superbly melodic ballads that I
fully endorse as if my name were Charlton Heston and
these songs were in fact automatic assault rifles easily accessible to renegade
militia groups in Syria. “
“Headwires” doesn’t leave the greatest impression as a rocker, and “M.I.A.” is actually pretty weak as a closer (why can’t this band ever end their albums effectively? Damn them!), but, again, they’re acceptable. I feel that on The Colour and the Shape Dave found the perfect balance between flat-out aggressiveness and perfect commercial pop sheen, and he’s started to slip just a little bit to the wrong side of the tracks on this effort, but his songwriting quality is still very high (which you can tell by the again brilliant singles, as well as a bunch of others, like “Stacked Actors,” “Gimme Stitches,” and “Aurora”), so I’m gonna go ahead and give this record a clear recommendation despite the slightly disturbing shifts. I also feel he’s lost that “cohesive whole” feel he had on Colour and slipped slightly back into the “bunch of songs” model of the debut, but this one’s definitely better than that one in that regard. So, again, some problems are cropping up here we didn’t see on Dave’s excellent sophomore effort, but I’m just such a sucker for great songwriting that I’ll allow it! And how many other bands produced two albums in this style (i.e. VH1-whore-leaning commercial “alternative” pop-rock) of this quality between 1997 and 1999, huh? Huh? I thought so.
One By One (2002)
Rating: 6
Best Song: “All My
Life”
Uh-oh…we’re getting dangerously close to Matchbox 20 territory here, Dave. The opener and lead single “All My Life” definitely rocks along with the Foos’ best (despite the fucking dynamic overcompression ass-production. I never really knew what people were talking about with that shit, but I can safely say the production on this one song sucks my asshole), but, otherwise, what happened? We have serious problems here. This album couldn’t be more middle-of-the-road if it tried (unless Rob Thomas were somehow involved)! The production has become more slicked-over, Dave’s songwriting has slipped even more, and even the song titles are useless middle-of-the-road VH1 slop! “Tired of You?” “Lonely as You?” “Overdrive?” “Come Back?” “Burn Away?” It’s always fun when you can tell an album is gonna be boring just from how nondescript it looks. For instance, if it has song titles such as those, it’s called something useless like One By One, and the album cover is bland white (or black, I’ve seen it both ways for some reason) with a neat-looking but fundamentally uninteresting heart-type figure directly under the band name and album title. Something like that. I mean, that’s really fucking nondescript. So much so that Aamer Haleem is having an orgasm right now.
OK, so it’s not that bad. Dave hasn’t turned his band into Train or something equally repugnant overnight. But it’s not a stretch to say I’d consider a 5 for this album if it didn’t have “All My Life” on it, which I still think completely rules. The other single, “Times Like These,” is melodic and all, but where’s the aggression? Where’s the spirit? I actually very much enjoy the acoustic version that’s been making the rounds, but the album version here leaves me completely underwhelmed. It’s such VH1 WHORE MUSIC. You hear me? VH1 WHORE MUSIC. “Times Like These” is 100%, Grade-A, certified VH1 WHORE MUSIC. It’s still melodic enough to be mildly enjoyable, and I do enjoy the repeated guitar line, but this is the sound of a band that’s become too reliant on production and professionalism and not reliant enough on songwriting and attitude. Where did those lovely things go? They were everywhere on The Colour and the Shape. Oh well. The dynamic overcompression sucks this song’s ass, too, by the way.
Anyway, the first half of the record actually has a fair number of nice, enjoyable songs. “Low” and “Have it All” rock decently, i.e. as much as this record’s gonna do so, but at least I sense a modicum of adrenaline with them. I also like the centerpiece “Halo,” whose chorus contains the only time other than “All My Life” where Dave lets his full-on Dave scream go with abandon. “HAAAAAAAA-LO!!! GOD ONLY KNOOOOOOOOWWWWS!!!!” Sure, he may be talking about the video game for all I know, but it’s effective! And definitely more so than most of the songs that surround it, which constitute, essentially, an overly middle-of-the-road, slicked-over, dynamically overcompressed to hell, “mature” adult pop-rock mush that I just can’t throw any support behind at all. Dave tries to sound angry on that “I may be scattered!!! A little shattered!!” chorus in “Disenchanted Lullaby,” but he just doesn’t sound convincing. It sounds more like a middle-aged guy past his prime trying to rock than anyone rocking successfully (which is what “All My Life” sounds like, for comparison). “Tired of You” tries to be the moody, percussion-less mid-album creepy ballad, but, again, it’s just unconvincing! The guitar line isn’t much to look at, and even though I like that “shame on me for the ruse” melody line, the chorus melody and guitar overdubs (which are apparently done by Brian May! Cool! Too bad I don’t like them) just leave me hollow and in desperate need of my copy of The Colour and the Shape.
After “Halo,” the rest of the record ranges from mildly enjoyable to totally nondescript to utter fucking buttcrap. The post-intro kick-in part of “Lonely as You” briefly recalls past glories, but the chorus is similar to “Disenchanted Lullaby” in its inability to convincingly rock with energy or purpose. “Overdrive” sounds like a bad rewrite of every forgettable song on the Foos’ far-superior-to-this-one 2nd and 3rd records, and “Burn Away” tries to be an effectively slow, heavy thing, but again fails to achieve anything noteworthy and ends up, occasionally, sounding a little like Creed (and *shudder* I actually mean that…mainly in the intro…*shudder*). Then “Come Back” is a completely unnecessary and frankly wasted eight minutes of my time, while the bonus track (on my (stolen mp3) copy), “Danny Says,” is actually a fun, lighthearted little ditty that I enjoy more than most of the real album. Maybe it’s just that it’s not dynamically overcompressed until it sounds like shit, though. Yeah, that’s probably it.
Harrumph. OK. This album’s really not bad. It’s basically an enjoyably forgettable and mediocre listening experience (high 5?) buoyed up to a definite 6 by “All My Life,” which just kicks all sorts of ass. Either Dave’s forgotten how to kick ass and be exciting, or he just wants his main band to be really, really commercial so he can goof off with that Probot project and drum in like 50 other bands and basically do whatever the hell he wants without worrying about money, because his main band’s videos are getting played on VH1 every 20 minutes alongside Sheryl Crow and Lenny Kravitz. And while I’d definitely prefer it if he would put forth the effort to make another Colour and the Shape (if he’s even capable of it at this point, which I’m not so sure of), he’s done enough in his career (he was in fucking NIRVANA!!!) that if he wants to turn the Foo Fighters into a cash cow to support his death metal/yodeling side projects with Lemmy Kilmister and Carrot Top or whatever weird shit he’s doing right now, so be it. I will not begrudge him this. Because he’s Dave. Fucking. Grohl.
In Your Honor (2005)
Rating: 7
Best Song: “D.O.A.”
Well, I can certainly say that Dave actually put effort into this one after the semi-suckjob that was One By One. The rockers actually rock on occasion instead of being warmed-over and neutered, and slow stuff is very quiet and sparsely arranged instead of being turned into glorified power ballads, so all that is very nice. However, there remains the problem of the album’s format. For those of you not aware of this (and if you actually read a site like mine on a regular basis and aren’t one of my friends otherwise, chances are you’re well aware of this, but humor me for a moment), Dave spent all the time leading up to the release of this bad boy telling anyone who would listen that this particular slice o’ Foo-rock would a) be the Foos’ defining artistic statement (in his ongoing Zeppelin obsession I think Dave compared it to Physical Graffiti, which is just ludicrous), b) be a double set, and c) be evenly split between an all-electric hard-rockin’ half and a quiet acoustic set. And when I say “evenly split,” I don’t mean “equal amounts of both types of music.” Nope, I mean “an all-hard rock disc and an all-quiet acoustic disc.” For those of you who enjoy the deftly arranged intermingling of perfectly sequenced rockers and ballads (which should be everyone on the goddamn planet), I shouldn’t need to explain why this is a retarted idea. Hell, even Dave should know this, since The Colour and the Shape did the whole “sequencing” thing nearly flawlessly. Shadooby.
Oh, hell, so the idea of separating the two discs into such extremes is dumb. Good. We all know this. The fact remains that if the music on both discs is good Foomusic instead of bad Foomusic, then it won’t matter so much. And, thankfully, I’m here to report that Dave’s songwriting, while not back at Colour and the Shape-level, has certainly rebounded after that VH1-whore vanilla disappointment of a last record (which I still gave a 6! I’m a moron). He’s probably back at There is Nothing Left to Lose-level, only minus the knack for insano-awesome singles and plus the level of filler expected in 85-minute double albums. The “RAWK!!!!!” disc, except for the horrid first single “Best of Me,” is a very entertaining and consistently rawking time indeed, nearly on par with that popular album that featured the catchy song about flying with the silly video about airline pilots high on cocaine who fantasize about their effeminate stewards. It’s samey, yes (that’s the entire point of this album, for god sakes), but Dave’s voice sounds more emotional and urgent on these tracks than it has at any point in his career, like he’s really trying to turn these catchy yet derivative alterna-rock tunes into the Foos’ defining artistic statement, when everyone already knows it came out eight years ago. But the conviction certainly works, especially when accompanied by nicely-written tunes like the obvious opening title track (complete with a minute of low-in-the-mix buildup and the inevitable emotionally cathartic scream at the end) and the absurdly catchy “D.O.A.,” which really has no excuse for not being a single. Outside of that terrific twosome, other winners include the slightly softer “Resolve” and the REALLY FUCKING EMOTIONAL Dave yelling song “The Deepest Blues are Black,” but the only track left I don’t like is “The Last Time” and its completely generic melody and lyrics. The rest is just solid, hard-rocking stuff, not up the Foos’ best standards, but certainly more immediate than anything they’ve done since The Colour and the Shape, if not as well-written.
The “soft” disc is exactly what you’d expect if you’re familiar with “Walking After You” from The Colour and the Shape, since half of the songs here are just rewrites of that particular hit. Disc 2 of this record is very quiet, very slight, and very sparse, almost jarringly so, since the Foos haven’t written more than a handful of songs that sound like this before. It gets boring and samey, ofcourse (how could it not?), but who am I to deny that the songwriting here is still very nice? I find the lounge-jazz duet with Norah Jones (“Virginia Moon”) to be about as exciting as women’s basketball and the closing “Razor” to be almost unlistenably underdeveloped, but there’s nothing else I’d really say is bad. Just…slight. There aren’t too many layers here. Acoustic guitars are plucked, backing synths are occasionally made to sound heavenly, pianos are periodically and delicately tinkled, percussion is minimal, and Dave’s voice is in full singer-songwriter mellowness. The opening duo of “Still” and especially “What if I Do” are probably the two strongest songs that sound like rewrites of “Walking After You,” but there’s always the chance that I start to get bored after listening to 10 minutes of this (though you know what? No. “What if I Do” rules). The other interesting track here is the slightly upbeat pop-rocker “Cold Day in the Sun,” which sticks out here a bit like “Resolve” stuck out on the other disc. It’s one of the best-written, catchiest, and most cleverly-arranged songs on the entire album, which is odd because TAYLOR HAWKINS WROTE IT! Yes, ten years after he stepped out from behind the drumkit to lead the Foo Fighters to fame and fortune, Dave slips back behind the kit and lets his drummer get up there and sing. And not only is Taylor Hawkins’ hair the same color and length as Kurt Cobain’s, but his raspy delivery sounds a fuckload like the leader of that other band Dave used to be in. It’s a very strange and unexpected development, I tell you, made even weirder by the fact that, as I said, the song is very good. Really catchy, and I love the jumpy acoustic solos in there. The rest of the material here, like the bulk of the first disc’s material, sounds very similar, and if you’ve heard one or two songs you’ve heard another five, but it’s nice. Maybe a high 6/low 7 for this one, and a high 7/low 8 for the first disc. Average that out and what do you get? That’s right! After two wars, two catastrophic hurricanes, and a giant tax cut, a sixty gajillion dollar deficit.
This album won’t convert anyone to Foo-fandom, and it’s definitely not the Foos’ defining statement or best piece of work (both of those awards go, ofcourse, to The Colour and the Shape), but it’s nice to see Dave halt his band’s slide toward VH1-whore irrelevancy and make a nice record. It’s too long and has a bunch of filler, ofcourse (I guess it goes without saying that a single 40-minute combination of the best material from these discs would be their 2nd-best album, although after the first 5 or 6 songs it’s not easy to pick out what stays and what goes since both discs are so even and samey), but who here thought Dave Grohl was capable of producing a Physical Graffiti for the naughties? If anyone has their hand up, you’re asinine. It’s not outstanding, but it’s certainly good, and a LOT better than I expected once that hideous “Best of You” started hitting the airwaves. No, Dave Grohl is not musical genius, nor will he ever be, but he’s consistent as hell, and he’s still a really cool guy. Good for him.
Skin And Bones (2006)
Rating: 7
Best Song: “Cold Day In The Sun”
An acoustic live album (with keyboard embellishments!) that sounds exactly like the acoustic half of In Your Honor. While I don’t feel like going back and counting up all the songs, it seems like roughly half this thing comes from the acoustic half of In Your Honor, while the other half consists of acoustic versions of old Foo favorites, half of which were either acoustic (“Walking After You”) or just slow (“February Stars”) to begin with. The only surprise is that the Nirvana-era rarity “Marigold” makes an appearance (and turns into one of the best performances on here), and while one could also look at the inclusion of such fast rockers as “My Hero” and “Everlong” as a surprise, those are two of the Foos’ biggest hits and they’re both, you know, “melodic,” so no, you’d be wrong. “Monkey Wrench” would’ve been interesting to hear in an acoustic setting, I guess, but that’s not here. “Times Like These” is, though. I know, I’m shocked too. Who’d have thought that?
This album
is incredibly predictable in both content and execution and whether or not you
like it depends on a) how much you like these songs in the first place and b)
how much slack you’re willing to cut Dave Grohl for
doing something so VH1-whore-ish. I
generally like these songs and I think Dave Grohl is
just about the coolest guy ever (He played Satan in the Tenacious D movie! Come on!),
so I’m giving it a positive but not especially laudatory 7, recommending it to
anyone who’s already a big Foo Fighters fan anyway
(and thus already has it), and moving on.
The songs that were acoustic in the first place sound exactly like their album versions, but
they’re reproduced well enough, so “Walking After You” is pretty and “Razor” is
boring as shit (good thing they started the show with it then, right?) and I guess
“Next Year” has an accordion in it that wasn’t there before, but does that mean
I have to give Dave Grohl a cookie? The songs that weren’t acoustic in the first
place sound exactly like you’d expect them to sound in an ultra-professional
acoustic setting, although I’ll mention that “Big Me” is especially excellent
(lovely female harmony vocals) and “Best of You” isn’t any better than the crap
version you all know and love. Also,
Taylor Hawkins’ “Cold Day in the Sun” actually isn’t acoustic at all, despite
being on an acoustic live album. Now, I
always thought this was one of the best songs on In Your Honor, and I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by
Listen, if you’re at all familiar with the Foo Fighters you already know exactly how this album will sound. If you’re not familiar with the Foo Fighters, you were never gonna buy this in the first place, no matter what I said about it. My, this was a useful review, wasn’t it?
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)
Rating: 5
Best Song: “Statues”
Look, I know this album came out like three quarters of a year ago or something, and due to both this and the fact that the Foo Fighters have now completely jumped the shark, you don’t give two shits about what I have to say about it. Fine. But I have like 10 albums or something sitting around that need to be reviewed to get all my artist pages up to date that I’m gonna try to review this summer, so I know you all know I’m gonna think the Killers outtakes album is gonna suck total dick, and of course it’s gonna suck total dick, but I have a Killers page and I didn’t have to pay anything for the album so I might as well review it, right? I really don’t like the fucking Killers, by the way.
Also, the Grammys are a fucking joke (not that you didn’t already know that). This album won one! This album! Not any other Foo Fighters album (including the still kick-ass The Colour and the Shape), but this one, the weakest and most warmed-over middle of the road generic “rock” album Dave and his sidekicks have yet foisted on the general public. A few days ago I surfed over to metacritic to see what the reviews for this album were, just for shits, and I was astounded to see that a large number of them were positive. Granted, the places that aren’t paid off by record companies gave it the correct 4 or 5 out of 10 or so, but did you know one place (I think it was Entertainment Weekly) gave it 10/10? Really? Did you listen to the same album I’m listening to? Or perhaps you put a Beatles album on instead? The only way this album is worth 10/10 is if your idea of perfect music is a guy yelling really obvious melodies with really cliched and trite lyrics really loud over really loud guitars that have no power whatsoever and play really obvious riffs that provide no interest to the listener at all. Granted, this is what a lot of popular music is nowadays, and this is sad, but why should the fact that the Foo Fighters do the same completely obvious things as everyone in a less offensive and obviously bad way than most make them worthy of a perfect score? If someone wants to give me a few grand, then sure, I’ll give the new 3 Doors Down album a 10/10 for you, but as my website contains a hardy base of like 40 regular readers who would prefer to listen to Jethro Tull or something, I don’t think that’s gonna be happening any time soon.
I’ve probably listened to this album like 15 times and I still have so little to say about it specifically that I’m just giving up and writing a review without much song-by-song discussion. As far as I can tell, for the most part, there are two types of songs: the really loud “angst” rocker where Dave yells really loud over guitar riffs so cliched and warmed over I’m left very bored and the slow “angst” acoustic ballad where Dave sings really softly over acoustic plucking so uninteresting I’m left very bored. Except for one little insignificant track that I hate with my entire being for no rational reason, nothing on this album is actively horrible or bad or whatever. It’s just very, very, very, very, very generic and mediocre. The single was “The Pretender” (and THAT won a Grammy, too!!!), but it’s not all that much better than the terrible “Best of You” thing from the last album, and the other rockers are either equally average or worse. They have generic titles like “Let it Die” and “Come Alive” and “Summer’s End” that remind me of the last Foos album that pissed me off because it was mediocre and generic and had no actual balls (One by One), with the difference between the two being that this one doesn’t have a totally rocking opening single like “All My Life” to partially salvage it. “The Pretender” was intended to serve this purpose, but it most definitely does not. The best this record can do is the moody, slow piano song “Statues,” which I kind of like only because it’s the only track that’s not a fucking joke that falls into neither of the two categories I elucidated earlier. The chorus (“We’re just ordinary people, you and me; time will turn us into statues, eventually”) is just as horribly cliched as the rest of the lyrics here, but the piano is relatively effective, and the bridge with the accordion, cello, and country guitar is easily the best musical moment on the album. It’s the only thing here than could be described as “interesting” at all. Ugh.
Finally, the tiny insignificant thing I hate for no reason is “The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners,” a two and a half minute acoustic instrumental exercise that sounds like a bad Led Zeppelin III outtake and should never have been attempted in the first place. I’m not ashamed to say I absolutely despise the godforsaken thing. Not because it’s especially bad (it’s simply…you know, “there”), but because in the context of this warmed over generic whore-“rock” it’s just so moronic. I know Dave Grohl loves Led Zeppelin and all, but if you’re gonna stick an instrumental on your album that sounds like a D-level Led Zeppelin III rip-off, at least make sure it’s not on an album that takes everything Led Zeppelin ever stood for and shits on it. That’s all I ask.
I give this album a rating as high as a 5 because I admit that there is a lot of room to get worse from this (for instance, be actively poorly written and bad instead of just mediocre and generic) and I kind of like “Statues.” It’s so fucking bland, though, that I’m pretty convinced that anyone who really likes it would probably think a Nirvana or Pearl Jam is too “scary” or “abrasive,” and people who think that are just frightening in their horrific taste in music. The Foo Fighters have officially become past-it, slicked-over, VH1-whore mainstream rock dinosaurs. Poo.