Review of Foo Fighters: In Your Honor
this entry brought to you by nine inch nails, "right where it belongs"
Despite a long-running track record (the band itself has been around in one form or another since 1995) and consistent popularity, the Foo Fighters' output has been anything but. The self-titled debut was impressive and had some great songs on it, but it was really more of a self-produced demo tape than anything else... although to this day the album's simplicity is very refreshing. The Colour and the Shape, the first recorded with a full band (though the drummer's parts were replaced with Dave Grohl's own drumming), and is the closest the Foos have come to a classic. There is Nothing Left to Lose was a terrible Foo album-- an experiment with pop that cemented their heavy rotation on Disney-owned alterna-lite stations, it nevertheless was a lame album with only a few memorable songs. One By One was quite a relief then, that it was a rock-'em-til-they-drop romper that was the second-closest Grohl has come to greatness. Oddly, Grohl has since dismissed it as "chud".
It's important to go over the history of the Foo Fighters when considering In Your Honor, an ultimately uneven, disappointing Foo record. Grohl has always struggled with greatness. Dave seems to be able to achieve near-greatness with no effort, but can't go the distance to reach that point. He achieves greatness in individual songs ("Everlong" alone is one of the best songs of the past 10 years, and that was only his second album), but he can't keep it up for the length of an entire LP. It's as if he's afraid to try for greatness, as if trying would fuck things up. In Your Honor was supposed to show off the dual sides of Dave Grohl: the rock-their-socks-off reigning king of alterna-rock, and the sensitive, thoughtful, instrospective troubador of alterna-rock with its two sides: one rock, one acoutstic. In reality, however, it shows off another set of Grohl's sides: mediocrity and near-genius.
The "rock" side of the album is where the problem with In Your Honor is. It's difficult to disparage, not because there's nothing wrong with it, but because it feels so workman like. Grohl comes off as a construction foreman whose team can build ten identical duplexes lickity split, but all of them look the same. The songs are all really well performed, and there is definitely a fire behind the workman-like attitude. The Foos come off as if they really, really mean it. But not one song stands out. It feels like paint-by-numbers Foo fighting, and worse, Dave decides to shout his way through every song, because, well, I guess if you're going to dedicate a CD to rock and a CD to acoustic, singing with any variety here would be a waste. It's sad, but there's nothing here like the previous album's "All My Life", "Low", "Times Like These", or hell, any of those songs. It's as if Dave Grohl took the idea of a "rock" CD too literally. The "rock" CD is just that-- rock, and absolutely nothing else. On it's own, the rock side would be their second-worst album.
The acoustic side, however, is immediately refreshing. This is, obviously, where the bulk of Grohl's energy and passion went; this is really, really good music. The opener is "Still", a sleepy, coudy, ambient lullaby with haunting, yet inviting bass drum thumps. "What if I Do?" finds Grohl pondering what might be God, but is revealed to be someone named "Carolina". "Razor", the head-spinningly gorgeous classical guitar show-off might be the most complicated song Grohl has written. "Another Round" and "On the Mend" are the perfect kind of quiet, dreamy Foo songs that would've fit in beautifully even on another, non-acoustic dedicated album. "Virginia Moon" is a charmy, jazzy duet with Alicia Keys that sounds worthy of Antonio Carlos Jobin. But the real show-stopper is "Friend of a Friend", a gorgeous, adoring ode to Kurt Cobain where Grohl swears that when his friend plays guitar, it is so beautiful that "no one speaks".
With each listen of In Your Honor in its entirety, it becomes apparent that alterna-rock's reigning prince really, really wanted to make an all-acoustic record but got cold feet, and slapped together a few loud rock songs very quickly to satisfy the chest-pumping members of his audience who want nothing of the wimpy stuff. Unfortunately, Grohl ended up watering down a beautiful, delicate album by making it seem like an add-on to an extremely mediocre rock album. Indeed, this shows his identity crisis from the beginning: Grohl seems afraid to be great.
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with love from CRS @ 2:17 PM
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Despite a long-running track record (the band itself has been around in one form or another since 1995) and consistent popularity, the Foo Fighters' output has been anything but. The self-titled debut was impressive and had some great songs on it, but it was really more of a self-produced demo tape than anything else... although to this day the album's simplicity is very refreshing. The Colour and the Shape, the first recorded with a full band (though the drummer's parts were replaced with Dave Grohl's own drumming), and is the closest the Foos have come to a classic. There is Nothing Left to Lose was a terrible Foo album-- an experiment with pop that cemented their heavy rotation on Disney-owned alterna-lite stations, it nevertheless was a lame album with only a few memorable songs. One By One was quite a relief then, that it was a rock-'em-til-they-drop romper that was the second-closest Grohl has come to greatness. Oddly, Grohl has since dismissed it as "chud".
It's important to go over the history of the Foo Fighters when considering In Your Honor, an ultimately uneven, disappointing Foo record. Grohl has always struggled with greatness. Dave seems to be able to achieve near-greatness with no effort, but can't go the distance to reach that point. He achieves greatness in individual songs ("Everlong" alone is one of the best songs of the past 10 years, and that was only his second album), but he can't keep it up for the length of an entire LP. It's as if he's afraid to try for greatness, as if trying would fuck things up. In Your Honor was supposed to show off the dual sides of Dave Grohl: the rock-their-socks-off reigning king of alterna-rock, and the sensitive, thoughtful, instrospective troubador of alterna-rock with its two sides: one rock, one acoutstic. In reality, however, it shows off another set of Grohl's sides: mediocrity and near-genius.
The "rock" side of the album is where the problem with In Your Honor is. It's difficult to disparage, not because there's nothing wrong with it, but because it feels so workman like. Grohl comes off as a construction foreman whose team can build ten identical duplexes lickity split, but all of them look the same. The songs are all really well performed, and there is definitely a fire behind the workman-like attitude. The Foos come off as if they really, really mean it. But not one song stands out. It feels like paint-by-numbers Foo fighting, and worse, Dave decides to shout his way through every song, because, well, I guess if you're going to dedicate a CD to rock and a CD to acoustic, singing with any variety here would be a waste. It's sad, but there's nothing here like the previous album's "All My Life", "Low", "Times Like These", or hell, any of those songs. It's as if Dave Grohl took the idea of a "rock" CD too literally. The "rock" CD is just that-- rock, and absolutely nothing else. On it's own, the rock side would be their second-worst album.
The acoustic side, however, is immediately refreshing. This is, obviously, where the bulk of Grohl's energy and passion went; this is really, really good music. The opener is "Still", a sleepy, coudy, ambient lullaby with haunting, yet inviting bass drum thumps. "What if I Do?" finds Grohl pondering what might be God, but is revealed to be someone named "Carolina". "Razor", the head-spinningly gorgeous classical guitar show-off might be the most complicated song Grohl has written. "Another Round" and "On the Mend" are the perfect kind of quiet, dreamy Foo songs that would've fit in beautifully even on another, non-acoustic dedicated album. "Virginia Moon" is a charmy, jazzy duet with Alicia Keys that sounds worthy of Antonio Carlos Jobin. But the real show-stopper is "Friend of a Friend", a gorgeous, adoring ode to Kurt Cobain where Grohl swears that when his friend plays guitar, it is so beautiful that "no one speaks".
With each listen of In Your Honor in its entirety, it becomes apparent that alterna-rock's reigning prince really, really wanted to make an all-acoustic record but got cold feet, and slapped together a few loud rock songs very quickly to satisfy the chest-pumping members of his audience who want nothing of the wimpy stuff. Unfortunately, Grohl ended up watering down a beautiful, delicate album by making it seem like an add-on to an extremely mediocre rock album. Indeed, this shows his identity crisis from the beginning: Grohl seems afraid to be great.
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