Reviews
Foo Fighters
In Your Honor
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2005-06-21
This is their fifth album, the Foo Fighters are typically a model of consistency with Dave Grohl at the helm. I will be honest I am somewhat of a Dave Grohl enthusiast, I think he's one of the best drummers in the world and to top it off he also pretty much leads the Foo Fighters in their sound. The other day Dan asked me how I would rate their albums without including the new one (as I had not heard any of it yet). So my favourite albums thus far run like this: Self-titled, Colour & The Shape, One By One, and There Is Nothing Left to Lose. If you know of Probot, a side project that Dave Grohl did all the music of heavy metal songs that he composed the music to, he then got metal legends to do all the singing on the tracks, the likes of Lemmy, Cronos, Lee Dorrian, and Snake. Anyways it is also a good album worth of music, its a little hard but personally if I could include it in my favourite Foo Fighters albums it'd medal silver or bronze at this point. The deal with this Foo Fighters album is that it is a double disc featuring ten tracks a disc and the first disc is electric and the second is acoustic. I will admit the theme is intriguing but I am not really one for the acoustic sound, so I thank you fans for demanding he make that album, now he's just another Dave Mathews. I had heard a rumour that Dave Grohl wanted to commit to a more harder image for Foo Fighters, but the electric portion of the CD isn't really what I thought it would be. It's not bad, its just definitely not what I was hoping for after the Probot side project, I was hoping some of the metal influence would find its way into the Foo Fighters. Instead I am almost reminded of the last album that was produced, except half of it is done as acoustic so that it will sell more CD's....whoops the secrets out. So my first impression isn't a good one, my magic eight ball says outlook doubtful, but I'm hoping that through some grit and determination Dave Grohl and Co. won't let me down.
So upon listening to the disc I'd say 4 or 5 times over the past weekend I kind of have a general feel for the album at this point. I don't much care for the acoustic, not that its bad, just that acoustic isn't something that I listen to ever and its because I just think its pointless, especially when Foo Fighters are killer with the electric insert to the band. Anyways Dave Grohl at first had me worried, but after listening to the CD its apparent to me its a bit of a grower, which is totally ok but never scare me like that again Dave. Track three is the hot new single "Best of You". I really like this song, at first I was kinda neutral on the song, not overly excited but certainly still anticipating the new Foo's disc. After I have had a chance to hear this song in the album I can honestly say its one of the best songs that the Foo's have put together in a long time. I really enjoy the chorus, its a very Foo Fighters chorus, by that I mean Dave Grohl singing to the point of yelling while a bitchin guitar riff flies by in the background. You always get that distinct energy with Foo Fighters, I've seen them in concert one time, WAY back in the day, Dan was there, they were the head of the show, so when they came on shit got crazy but it was totally worth it because Foo Fighters were amazing and I'm glad I got to see them perform live.
Since theres only ten songs per album I'm having trouble deciding whether I want to talk about only electric songs or as well include the acoustic songs. The acoustic is kinda like unplugged Foo Fighters, where Dave Grohl can no longer sing loud, he has to soften it up as the music softens up. Part of the reason I like the Foo's is because they have a hard ass edge to them, pretty hard to have that when you sing like a pussy and strum something without electricity. Track seven on the second disc is called "On The Mend", and yes it is acoustic. It reminds me of not the Foo Fighter's, it's like trippy hippy music and he sounds like he's sad. Oh man, Dave Grohl I know your trying to be all experimental or whatever but you know what woulda been cool? A double disc where you put 10 electric tracks on it and 10 heavy metal tracks on it, THAT would be freaking amazing. And he has enough money that he could do whatever he wants at this point with music and people will buy it, like me for instance, I will still buy the new album because I want to own the first disc, theres no way for me to not purchase the second disc and I have to live with that. Actually I'd say that a lot of the second disc I just wonder if something pretty dramatic happened in Grohl's life, because it all sounds like he is upset at something like he's sad.
Track five on the first disc is called "Hell". I like the title, it is essentially Dave Grohl singing about what Hell is like or what they would be doing in Hell. It has a really catchy guitar on it and as always you tend to notice the drums, I've been looking around the internet and it sounds like Grohl did some drumming and that the other guy also did some drumming. Which is good because I always like to see Dave going back to his roots and showing us he can turn it up full throttle on drums still, I think it kind of shows us that even though he doesn't do the drumming as much as he used to that he still has it. Hell is a quick track, spanning just under two minutes but the whole time the pace and everything I need for a sicke Foo's track is there, again when you hear it the chorus is the best part but if you pay attention the guitar on the verses could probably be the best part of the song.
My favourite song after much internal debate is track six, "The Last Song". It has everything I like about a Foo's track but it had a tough time passing the single "Best of You" for a while. However its not secured it spot, and for good reason, Dave Grohl might have his best vocals on the whole first CD on this track right here. I must give Grohl credit on vocals when its due because I can remember when he first started on lead vocals with the Foo's that he was not as good as he has become. The beginning of the song leads in with a neat drum and guitar combo, its consistent and then Grohl comes in with his vocals and takes over. The focus is more on the vocals throughout the song which I think is good because usually they try to over-produce Grohl's voice, with good intentions I suppose but that can get old. In the chorus he seems to repeat himself with his own background vocals, which is something the Foo's have done before, I really like the effect that it creates though. Definitely my favourite song on the disc is this one, just curious what other people think, whats your favourite song on this new CD?
Ok the only other song I want to talk about is track seven which is "Free Me". There is a lot of guitar in this song and its just well put together on the whole, the drums are pretty low key though which is pretty odd. This is one of the songs that reminds me of the last album, One By One. In fact on the whole I would say this album reminds me of the last album that the Foo Fighter's made, I would say theres good reason for that, they are a lot older and of course more disconnected from their early Self-titled debut. For me to expect something like the first album would be crazy, since I don't hate any Foo's album though I'm not sure it matters since generally I will find something I like about the album enough that I will own it. Maybe its personal bias, but I know as well as you do that Dave Grohl is the mastermind behind this band and of course other side projects which he has received acclaim for. What I really want to see is a Dave Grohl solo album, however I suppose that can album be considered Probot in a small way. I suppose since he doesn't do any vocals on that CD that we can maybe demand one as fans and since he caves to fan demand (acoustic CD) I figure we could always coax a solo album from him.
Tracks to Steal: "The Last Song", "Free Me", "Best of You", "Hell", "In Your Honour", "DOA", Pretty much the whole first disc.
Where will the new Foo Fighters album place on the career albums ranking?
Do the Foo's still have what it takes to make me spulge?
Judgment Passed
Score: 7.6
Definitely above average, however in my Foo's CD ranking this disc would land fourth outta the five discs. So take that as you will.
- Brandon