The Foo Fighters - Classic or Dud?

I'd say disc 1 of In Your Honor comes fairly close to being as good as the first two albums. Disc 2 really sinks the album's overall batting average, though.

Dud to the fucking max. I have a lot of hate for the Foo Fighters if only for their being a shining example of radio rock.

o noez!

I hope it's not too late for Pat Smear's pixie dust to help now that he's back.

I am a one way motorway
I'm the one that drives away
Then follows you back home
I am a street light shining
I'm a wild light blinding bright
Burning off alone

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again

I am a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky
To hang the stars upon tonight
I am a little divided
Do I stay or run away
And leave it all behind?

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again

This was written by a former member of Nirvana.

Not sure what point you're trying to make there, but okay.

so, Nirvana sucked. Foo Fighters sucked too. what's yr point?

yeah plenty of Nirvana songs have lyrics as lame as that. and none of them have cool 7/8 riffs like that song has.

it is my belief that There Is Nothing Left To Lose is a very fine power-pop record (cf 'Generator', 'Learning To Fly', 'Aurora')

Too inconsistent to be classic, too many good songs to be dud.

like the first album but not enough to listen to it, extremely puzzled by their continued existence and (apparent) vitality

Thematically they shifted from "alternative" jibberish to "DAMN, woman, why can't you stop me from cheating on you" hard rock just as rock stations did, without getting so blatantly macho as to turn off the old fans who can still listen to rock stations.

plus Grohl can still write a hook

whether or not you like nirvana, its pretty funny what a Hagar Grohl has become when you look back at his roots.

I've only heard the one Scream track on the Dischord comp from a pre-Grohl record, so I don't really know what they sounded like. but he always struck me as a metal/classic rock kid who fell into punk/alternative rock, and the later Foos/Probot/QOTSA stuff he's done in the past few years probably reflects those roots as much as you could say for anyone whose career started as underground and ended up as mersh as his.

always? like when you were 12?

I'm sure he wasn't the only 15 year old punk drummer who dug Bonham but he might be the only one singing "It's a shame we have to die, my dear" in an arena today.

So really you just hate him for being successful.

Not sure what point you're trying to make there, but okay.

-- jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, November 13, 2007 11:22 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^^^^^^^ (haha xpost)

I don't hate him now (too many Hagars out there who CAN'T write good hooks), and I didn't find him ridiculous until well after he was a millionaire.

if we're gonna harp on anything being a betrayal of his XHARDXCOREX roots it should probably be the goofy videos where he wears wigs and plays 'characters', not the self-serious dirges.

oh i won't harp on admirable ironies (Though "Everlong" is a way better video than "Learn To Fly").

Way upthread: Nirvana were terrible lyrically!

not in a "the more you live the more you give" way

Hagar would NEVER right "aqua seafoam shame"

write, ha

Rock star in "recovery lyrics" shocker. Just be glad we didn't have to hear Kurt's.

this is true

i'm digging Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace so far. He does his thing.

COlour and teh shape was pretty great. i say classic.

yeah this is good. Summer's End in particular, with tight blades of guitars dancing around a pretty boogified southern bedrock.

this still has me rolling though

Oh fuck you all, the world would've been a better place if it were dave grohl that courtney had shot. the foo fighters are the osound of stinking sneaker rock from the 70s with a bad moustache to boot. Now go on, be quiet and fuck off.

DUD: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/02/foo.html

DOM: http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/2441073

o i c

i didn't realise that music reviews required every sentence to include painfully unfunny one-liners

Posts to ILX don't, however.

Can someone tell me a better major label hard rock album that came out in 1997, because I just listened to The Colour And The Shape for the first time and is not very good.

I can't think of a better one. Doesn't mean Foo Fighters is any good, though.

http://www.riverofsound.com/Images/Products/IxnayOnTheHombreTheOffspring19978495f.jpg

http://www.tripstar.org/silverchair/covers/freakshow.jpg

http://cdn.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2268697-44219207.jpg

Serious answer: there ain't one.

Its the last foo fighters album i liked

Me too!

they were great on that tour. they sucked after pat left. I saw them support the prodigy after that with one of the stahls but it wasnt the same. Its quite sad how bad they've got now, even sadder they've got huge with it.

I honestly cant think of a better major label rock/metal album from 1997.
Lean times.

DUDDUDDUDDUDDUD

i love the first album and the first album only. it's so different from the others, basically because it's a glorified demo tape.

-- latebloomer, Wednesday, August 1, 2007 1:43 AM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link

I'd be even harder pushed to think of good major label rock/metal albums from the last few years. Mastodon, Qotsa, anything else?

Actually this might make a good seperate thread

It would be a good thread. Good major label rock/metal acts have been rare this decade. You can have your My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco and a bunch of other bands whose names bother me. Maybe American Idiot, if that's to be considered a good major label rock/metal album. What else is there?

IT IS!

also i did in fact cry … damn, “rest” really got to me

i love the insane build from verse to chorus in Nothing At All — totally sounds like “Breed” for a moment

i also selfishly like having Dave on drums for this album for comfort/nostalgic reasons. but sad that he had to

Under You is the one that really gets me, love the hook for that so much

Under You is about both and all and blah blah blah, but ... i mean ... it's about Kurt, right? if we're honest, it's about Kurt.

Genius annotations and every article about the song says it's about Hawkins and maybe it is.

But to me, it's about Kurt.

the new one is pretty good but they still can't quite make a great album, it merely reaches the quality of their previous best work (the colour and the shape and wasting light) where there's some excellent material but also some that's just fine. a little disappointing because the singles had me hoping they might get there and they almost did. in some places it finally feels like the same band that made "everlong" which has always been weirdly singular in their catalogue. the dreamy guitar tones are lovely too and going full siamese dream on "rest" is a great move.

went back and checked out the singles for the last few albums and wow what the hell had they been doing? some absolutely dreadful stuff

I'd have to agree, though to be fair, being a good singles band for a decade and a half is nothing to sneeze at. Greatest Hits is too thin to fit the bill (especially when it's diluted with a couple of unremarkable re-recordings and a couple of underwhelming new tracks), but a compilation that strings together their 18 or 20 best singles would be highly welcome.

this album being so good triggered a foo fighters discog run. s/t through wasting light was better than i remembered. post-wasting light, worse. medicine at midnight is godawful

there is nothing left to lose is a flawless power pop record btw

"godawful" is harsh, pretty sure i'd like medicine more on second listen, it just did nothing i want a foo fighters record to do outside of "love dies young," which is the cruelly the last song

idk, I think "godawful" isn't far off for MatM, and I'm usually an apologist for these guys

the new one is basically what i'd want there is nothing left to lose to have been, a similar shiny guitar tone but the songs are stronger overall

post-wasting light grohl seemed to become obsessed with recording session gimmicks to keep him interested? & they got out of their comfort zone but completely forgot how to play to their strengths at all

there is nothing left to lose is a flawless power pop record btw

I still think it's their best.

A coworker just sent me pics from a recent music fest; he was standing with his bf watching Peaches perform, and noticed Grohl was standing right behind them. His bf got a few selfies w/Grohl... pretty cool!

revisiting the new one, god the best parts of this are like the best foos record ever. also really appreciate “the glass”’s resemblance to “in the meantime”