Oh boy my first request! As per my father’s wishes today we’re gonna talk about Foo Fighters. (I know, controversial that I’m discussing Foo Fighters before Nirvana, but here we are)

Before I actually say anything important, today’s title comes from a late night show with David Letterman clip that I’ll link below because I think everyone should hear this.

Okay, now that we’ve all seen the clip (right?), let’s get into some music, shall we?

Part 1: Foo Fighters (1995)

Calling this a Foo Fighters album would be disingenuous, it’s not a Foo Fighters album, it’s a Dave Grohl album. And if you think I’m exaggerating, here are the official credits.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen that section of album credits labeled “additional musician.” It’s always been “additional musicians.” But no, here there’s just one, a singular additional musician. And it’s not even like Greg Dulli was providing a necessary feature of the song that wasn’t there before, just “additional” guitar. Like I don’t know about you, but I don’t think there are many single members of successful bands that could’ve literally just left said band and made their own band completely solo, as in play all the instruments. But hey, Dave Grohl did. And to do that just as some form of therapy to forget about your problems is wild, like it wasn’t even some big deal.

Anyway, I think a lot of people desperately wish Nirvana had been around long enough to make more records, but if they hadn’t disbanded, who’s to say if we’d ever have heard Foo Fighters. Not that I wouldn’t like another Nirvana album or 2, but life gave Dave lemons, and he made some pretty excellent lemonade.

So let’s get into this debut, possibly the only album that is “post-grunge” by definition. We open with “This Is a Call”, the start to a very strong side 1 if you ask me. It’s a nice preview, and definitely a highlight. This might be a reach, but I hear a lot of Kurt’s lyricism in this record, and especially in “This Is a Call.” The verses sound like nonsense but they probably have some deep meaning, and the choruses are loud, powerful, and catchy. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some influence there because most of these songs were written before the disbanding of Nirvana. But influence aside, this is a great opener.

Side 1 continues with their second single, “I’ll Stick Around.” Courtney Love has managed to upset quite a few musicians, which means she’s collected a mighty fine group of diss tracks for herself. But this one, this one has to be my favorite. I have nothing unique to say about this one other than it’s really catchy and I like it a lot.

The final single of side 1 is track 3, “Big Me.” It takes a little bit of a turn away from the traditional rock sound from the first 2 tracks, not that that’s a bad thing. It’s also pretty short, just over 2 minutes. But again, not a bad thing. This is a cute song, it’s definitely the biggest hit from this album. While I do like this quieter style Foo Fighters tries occasionally, I do think I like them better louder.

We finish side 1 with the last three tracks, “Alone + Easy Target”, “Good Grief”, and “Floaty.” They’re all strong, although the first two are probably the strongest, and if the album had continued exactly like this I probably would’ve enjoyed it more.

But instead we get a much weaker side 2 beginning with quite possibly the most unfortunate title I’ve heard in a while. We have to talk about it, it’s “Weenie Beenie.” I like the riff well enough, but those vocals are just brutal. I don’t know what kind of distortion they had there but it’s truly unfortunate, and it ruins the whole song.

A little later comes the fourth single, “For All the Cows.” Given its silly title, I don’t think it takes itself too seriously, it’s mildly “a-moo-zing.” (you see what I did there? 😏) I will say though, it doesn’t really hold up against the first 3 singles

“X-Static” and “Wattershed” are pretty good, but then we come to the closing track/fifth and final single,“Exhausted.” Some background, this song began as a demo that Dave had shown to Kurt in hopes of it being on a Nirvana record. He wasn’t aware that Kurt had actually liked it until Pat Smear told him after Kurt had already passed. And yeah, this song would’ve fit right in on a project like “Incesticide”, but I just really don’t enjoy it. Already within those first few seconds you hear that heavily distorted riff and it just sounds so unwelcoming. I don’t know, maybe I’m happy that this didn’t have a chance to end up on a Nirvana album, but I don’t like it much here either.

So that’s the end of this debut record. My overall thoughts? It’s got some really high high points, and some really low low points. Its production is muddy and it maybe could’ve benefited from a few more people, but it’s got the passion and the talent. If nothing else I’d encourage you to check out those first few tracks, I think they show this time in Foo Fighters history in the best light. For a debut album, it’s not too shabby at all.

Highlights:

1. This Is a Call

2. I’ll Stick Around

3. Big Me

Final Score: 7/10 (Pretty Good)

Part 2: “The Colour And the Shape” (1997)

I think that we can all acknowledge that this is probably peak Foo Fighters. Not to say that completely one man band era Foo Fighters isn’t good, but some extra help definitely didn’t hurt. This time Dave was joined by touring rhythm guitarist for Nirvana, Pat Smear, and bassist Nate Mendel. I think treating Foo Fighters more like a band and less like a solo project was really beneficial here, and it helped turn that passion from the first record into genuinely quality music.

Another important factor to consider, we’ve now dropped Barrett Jones as a producer and gone with Gil Norton, an absolute legend in 90’s alternative rock. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the production on self-titled, so this was definitely an improvement.

But let’s get into these songs, our opener is “Doll”, sort of an interlude although it’s not actually in between anything. It’s cute I guess, but it’s nothing special and I don’t think it’s the most effective opener they’ve had. The first real track comes after “Doll”, “Monkey Wrench.” It’s fast, it sounds clean, it’s got a catchy melody, it’s hard rock perfected. I don’t have a lot to say about it, but I don’t think it’s really possible to improve upon this song.

Track 3 is a little overlooked in my opinion, it’s one of my favorites, it’s “Hey, Johnny Park!” Again, what can I say about this song? I think I’ll do a lot of skipping around with this record, most of these songs follow the same recipe. Not to say it’s boring of course, if this is the music you’re into, you’ll be into it.

The next song I feel needs highlighting purely because its streaming numbers are criminally low is “Enough Space.” I think a lot of people dismiss Dave Grohl as a vocalist because truth be told, he’s probably a better drummer than singer. But this guy can scream, and no song showcases that better than “Enough Space.”

A few tracks later we get this album’s big radio hit, well, really just the band’s big radio hit period, “Everlong.” Another perfect song, everything about it works. It’s stunningly produced, guitars in a Foo Fighters song have never sounded like this. That secret line Louise Post is singing over the refrain makes them sound even better. And you don’t really notice it first listen but those drums are going wild behind everything else. I could go on but the point is, it’s a great song, it deserves 100% of the hype it receives.

So the real closer to “The Colour And the Shape” is “New Way Home”, but the album appears on Spotify with its bonus track and its namesake, “The Colour And the Shape.” But before I talk about that song, I feel like we need to address the elephant in the room. Dave, there’s no reason to be spelling color the British way, you’re from Ohio. Literally who are you trying to fool here? Anyway, back to the song, it’s by far the worst of the bunch. It’s loud, ugly, offensive the ears, it’s just one of the worst closers I’ve heard. It may not have been featured on the original release, but it will always haunt this album.

I’d hate to end this review on a bad note though, because really it’s a fantastic album. It’s full of radio hits and could-be radio hits, it’s got a near-perfect track list. They weren’t doing anything daring or new with this record, hard rock wasn’t a new concept in 1997. But it perfected what was already there which is something.

Highlights:

1. Everlong

2. Hey, Johnny Park!

3. Monkey Wrench

Final Score: 9/10 (Amazing)

Part 3: Wasting Light (2011)

So did they keep up the good work? Well a listen through their 2011 release “Wasting Light” might tell you. This album was pretty critically acclaimed, it got a whopping 5 grammy nominations and won 4 of them. That’s a little bit insane for a band on their 7th studio album and 16 years into their career. So it must be pretty good, no?

Well I don’t wanna spoil my thoughts just yet, but yeah some pretty cool stuff was happening here. And in my humble opinion, I think we owe that to a couple important people. Number one, guess who’s producing? It’s Butch Vig! For those who don’t follow production stuff, that’s the guy from Nevermind. He might even be a bigger 90’s alt-rock giant than Gil Norton, and that’s saying a lot. Number two, back from his lengthy time out since “The Colour And the Shape”, it’s Pat Smear. So cool, the gang’s all here, what does this record sound like?

Well we open with “Bridge Burning”, and I have to start by saying that its riff, or at least the first riff, has me questioning this song already. We’re not even 5 seconds in, but it’s got this ugly sort of trash can, Lars on “St. Anger” sound to it. It does get better though, there’s nothing a few more layers of guitar and Taylor Hawkins’ drumming can’t fix. That guy was an absolute monster, he 1000% saves this intro. But intro aside, the song’s got a nice chorus, I think it ends up being a pretty good track 1. It sort of establishes that this record will have some heavier moments, which isn’t something I typically associate with Foo Fighters, but is definitely something I appreciate about this album specifically.

The next song I’d like to discuss is track 4, “White Limo”, which ended up winning best hard rock/metal performance. Ugh, I wish I liked this one more than I do. It’s more of what we heard with “Weenie Beanie.” If you wanna make a metal song, make a metal song, that’s totally cool. But metal doesn’t mean the vocals need to sound like this. It’s a cool instrumental, but this one’s a no for me.

So it’s one downer track, whatever, it’s not long before we get to the first massive hit, “These Days.” I think this one resembles older Foo Fighters hits like “Monkey Wrench.” They’re back to their roots, cleanly produced hard rock with good songwriting. Is it safe? Maybe, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If you want the Foo formula broken, I’d look at track 10, “I Should Have Known.” It’s a ballad, a real ballad. They never do that. It’s got some cool instrumentation, a violin, a mellotron, an accordion, since when could you find those in a Foo Fighters song? And a quick look at the personnel tells me that’s the one and only Krist Novoselic on that accordion. (and the bass, but I’m more concerned with the accordion here) Gosh, we’ve got Dave, Pat, Butch, and Krist? It’s starting to smell like teen spirit in here.

We end with by far the strongest closer I’ve heard on a Foo Fighters record, “Walk.” I absolutely adore this song. I’d like to think I’m a pretty decent multi-taker, but that bridge makes me stop everything I’m doing each listen without fail. If there was anything that could prove these guys still had it, this is it.

And that’s a wrap on “Wasting Light.” My final take? It’s their most consistent album of the 2010’s without a doubt. It has some of the heaviest tunes I’ve heard from them, and some stone cold song-writing. Mad props to Foo Fighters for prying rock n’ roll from its grave for one last show, the odds of getting an album this consistent past year 15 were slim, but they managed it.

Highlights:

1. Walk

2. These Days

3. I Should Have Known

Final Score: 8/10 (Great)

Okay, I need to stop talking about Foo Fighters now, I’m hearing Dave Grohl in my sleep. Sorry for the wait, junior year’s no piece of cake and I’m not about to half ass these reviews. Hope you enjoyed, Rumours has it I’ll be back here in a few days time, but for all I know that could be Second Hand News.