It's already near the end of 2002, but with a new Nirvana single on heavy rotation at KROQ, Guns n' Roses touring again and a new Pearl Jam album expected in mid-November, it seems like we've gone ten years back in time instead of moving forward.
But if there's anyone who's anxious to clear away the nostalgia and get on with his life, it's Dave Grohl, former drummer for Nirvana and now lead singer for the Foo Fighters, whose new album, One by One, was released on October 22.
Grohl's life has been pretty interesting since the group's previous album, There is Nothing Left to Lose, was released in 1999. After turmoil within the band and drummer Taylor Hawkins' drug problems, Grohl took some time away from the band and actually sat down to the drum kit again, collaborating with the likes of Tenacious D and Queens of the Stone Age.
And then there was the dreaded Nirvana litigation, in which Grohl and Krist Novoselic went to battle with Courtney Love over ownership of unreleased Nirvana material. But the case was finally settled and Hawkins worked to curtail his addictions. Eventually, the band regrouped and produced One by One, one of their most competent albums to date.
The Foo Fighters have the kind of sound that's familiar without growing stale. Going into a new album, you have a basic idea of what you're getting, but you'll also be pleasantly surprised by what the Foos have to offer.
Sitting on the fence somewhere between the whisper/shout bombast of The Colour and the Shape and the lush, more relaxed There is Nothing Left to Lose, One by One pinballs back and forth between sonically heavy and emotionally hefty.
The lead single "All My Life" kicks things off with Grohl stating "all my life I've been waiting for something / something never comes, never leads to nothing." The guitars grind all over the next song, "Low," sounding as if Grohl picked up a few things from his sessions with Queens of the Stone Age. With "Times Like These," though, the band settles into a sunnier groove that wouldn't be out of place among earlier songs like "Stacked Actors" or "Aurora."
Despite all the new friends, Grohl has made over the past few years, the only guest musician on the album is Brian May of Queen fame, who also helped the Foos cover Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" on the soundtrack to Mission: Impossible 2. May adds his licks to "Tired of You," perhaps the most surprising track on the album: moody, subdued and lacking drums of any sort, Grohl considers a troubled relationship "cursed by love so dire / one more boy for hire / one more boy to lend a hand to you," he sings, realizing his hapless situation and concluding with melancholy, "I'm not getting tired of you." It serves as a great halfway point for the album.
The second half falls a little flat, however. "Overdrive" doesn't really have anything to distinguish it from a glut of similar-sounding songs from the latter half of their original, self-titled album, while "Burn Away" would sound better if it weren't so plodding or if it didn't feature the chorus "We'll burn away / burn away / burn away / my bride," which gets old after about the third listen. "Halo" is enjoyable, though, and "Lonely as You" does a better job of evoking the band's first album without re-treading it. "Come Back," the big finishing number, qualifies as the band's longest song ever (almost clocking in at eight minutes).
Toward the end takes on a kind of militaristic feel as Grohl pulls a Douglas MacArthur and announces "I will come back… for you" over the retreating pounding of guitar and drum alike. "Dead on the inside, I've got nothing to prove / Keep me alive and give me something to lose," Grohl sings, alluding to the band's previous album.
In the dying guitar fuzz, echoes of Nirvana return to haunt the proceedings, raising the question of whether Grohl has truly managed to escape the shadow of Kurt Cobain. For all the differences and influences, the songs all still have that unmistakable Foo Fighters sound. Grohl's voice is idiosyncratic, on his better days sounding as if he's stepped out of a Beach Boys rival band from the 1960s, while the guitar work is just as solid as it's ever been. One by One sounds like an amalgamation of the first three Foo albums, for what that's worth.
Little if any of it is challenging or especially eccentric, though that shouldn't bother those already familiar with the band.
Though it takes comfort in its past, One by One also finds the band looking confidently toward the future. "I'm a new day rising / I'm a brand new sky that hangs stars upon the night," Grohl muses on "Times Like These." "I'm a little divided," he continues, "do I stay or run away and leave it all behind?" Let's hope he chooses the former. It should be interesting to see where Grohl has led his band another three years from now.
