(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
David Grohl (twenty-six years old, formerly a hardcore and grunge prodigy, former member of Mission Impossible, Brain Damage, Scream, and Nirvana) pursued a personal path to success with the project Foo Fighters (Roswell, 1995), a solo album composed and recorded in 1994. The project became a band when Grohl recruited Pat Smear (ex-Germs) on guitar and the rhythm section of Sunny Day Real Estate (but the first album, conceived before the band was formed, is entirely performed by him). Surprisingly, Grohl revealed himself here as a rare pop talent, capable of producing melodies, rhythms, and riffs that are immediately accessible and perfectly in step with the post-Cobain world. Grohl managed to replicate the desperate scream, brutal acceleration, and driving riff of Nirvana in I'll Stick Around and Good Grief (one of their classics). But the album’s success owes much to simple choruses such as that of Alone + Easy Target, the alternation of melodic hard-rock stereotypes (This Is A Call), and introspective moments (the sparse, wobbly ballad Big Me). The second half dares some quirks, both on the hard-rock front (Weenie Beenie) and the ballad side (X-Static), but the Foo Fighters had already won the game and could afford a few poetic licenses.
Grohl then released Touch (Capitol, 1997). In the role of instrumental composer, the former drummer David Grohl—once the old lion of Scream and timid dolphin of Nirvana, now the audacious singer/guitarist of the ultra-commercial Foo Fighters—demonstrates a maturity not evident from his pedigree. These suites of soft, meticulously arranged hard-rock, in which the elegant steps of bass and drums often outweigh the strangling guitar riffs, possess the allure of the atmospheric, the metaphysical, and even the otherworldly. Grohl has the stature of a punk mystic seeking the spit that will resurrect him among the saints of hell, and he roams wildly with the brilliant and driving Bill Hill Theme and the syncopated charge of Spinning Newspapers. He even paints eccentric moments such as the jazzy, decadent ballad August Murray Theme or the soul organ fugue of Outrage, with surf-psychedelic reverbs. When he sings the bland nursery rhymes of How Do You Do, the ghosts of the Foo Fighters appear—only for the pop cognoscenti. He delves into the velvety ecstasies of Pink Floyd with Saints In Love and into lounge pop-soul with the title track, also the film’s theme, performed by chanteuse Louise Post. Perhaps in old age he will become a new age music star.
Colour And The Shape (Capitol, 1997), the Foo Fighters’ second album, delivers yet another dose of grunge-pop lacking real bite, from the hit Monkey Wrench (somewhat reminiscent of She Walks On Me by Hole) to the bubblegum nursery rhyme of Up In Arms, from that sort of ragtime that is See You to the acoustic serenade Walking After You. Other hits included the trembling power ballad Everlong (their signature song) and My Hero. Guitarist Pat Smear’s contribution is somewhat more prominent: thanks to his powerful riffs, the otherwise predictable melodies of My Poor Brain (one of their classics) and Wind Up can stand alongside classic grunge. New drummer Taylor Hawkins plays like a seasoned old hand.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Grohl is a pop songwriter, a renegade punk who enjoys writing refrains
with the artistic depth of a Beatles ditty, just like so many leftist
students eventually became bourgeois entrepreneurs.
Regardless of the moniker on the cover,
There Is Nothing Left To Lose (RCA, 1999)
is yet another solo Grohl album
(with former Sunny Day Real Estate bassist Nate Mendel and drummer Taylor
Hawkins) that spills out into MOR and radio-friendly muzak.
Breakout,
Learn To Fly,
Aurora and
Stacked Actors are the least embarassing of the bunch.
Ain't It the Life
(that echoes one of the Beatles' Across the Universe)
is a good example of where Grohl is headed to.
Former No Use For A Name's
guitarist Chris Shifflet revitalized the sound of Foo Fighters on
One By One (RCA, 2002), a collection
of otherwise mediocre material. The Foo Fighters had become a superb band
just when Grohl ran out of the good tunes.
The jangling, Byrds-ian
Times Like These,
All My Life and Low
are the main additions to the canon.
Dave Grohl's next project after the Foo Fighters was Probot (Southern Lord, 2004), a sort of tribute
to his metal heroes: each song features a different vocalist, chosen according
to the style of the song. The music is almost as dull as the concept.
The 21-song double-disc
In Your Honor (RCA, 2005)
includes a disc of acoustic tracks and a disc of electric ones.
The two are full of filler and, at best, of echoes of Grohl's best songs
(End Over End, No Way Back, Best of You, one of their classics).
As for the acoustic campfire songs,
Virginia Moon (a duet with Norah Jones),
and Miracle (the best ones) convince you to avoid at all costs being
stuck in a remote campground with the Foo Fighters.
Chris Shifflet is also the leader of Jackson United that released
Western Ballads (Magnificent, 2005), that beats the Foo Fighters at their
own game, delivering a tighter and catchier brand of power-pop.
The Foo Fighters' drummer
Taylor Hawkins formed the Coattail Riders and recorded the mediocre
Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders (2006).
Skin And Bones (2006) documents live performances.
Determined to revive the AOR sound of the 1970s no matter what, Grohl
adopted string arrangements and piano ballads for
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007), whose standouts
(Statues, Home,
Cheer Up Boys, another bubblegum melody sandwiched between virulent riffs,
Long Road to Ruin, the most lilting chorus of the album, drenched in guitar noise,
and The Pretender, yet another variation on Nirvana's noisy catchy anthems),
pale in comparison with the lone,
fast-paced instrumental,
The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners.
Come Alive is just a
gentle ballad with none of the guitar buzz until the final explosion and scream.
Stranger Things Have Happened is
another acoustic ballad, this one on a plaintive tone.
The Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones formed the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures (2009) that sounded like a Led Zeppelin tribute band.
The Foo Fighters' Wasting Light (2011), recorded in a garage,
marked an impressive return to
form and possibly their most vibrant collection yet.
The band even straddled metal (Bridge Is Burning), punk
(A Matter of Time),
and
garage-rock (White Limo) while unleashing its melodic prowess in
power-pop ditties (Back and Forth and especially Arlandria)
the Cheap Trick-ian refrains of
Rope and especially Walk (the two hits),
and the power-ballad I Should Have Known, although the temptation of
middle-of-the-road rock is still irresistible
(These Days and Dear Rosemary).
The Foo Fighters continued to release albums of mediocre pop-rock such as
Sonic Highways (2014), produced by Butch Vig,
with Something From Nothing,
and
Concrete and Gold (2017), with Run and The Sky Is a Neighborhood,
produced by Greg Kurstin (producer of pop stars such as Adele, Lily Allen, Sia, Kelly Clarkson and Katy Perry).
By comparison with these utterly insignificant collections,
Wasting Light was a masterpiece.
Medicine at Midnight (2021) is another bland parade of
power-ballads and generic rockers, but the quality is noticeably improved:
Love Dies Young with soaring synth and steady disco beat,
the pastoral folk elegy Chasing Birds,
the emo ballad Waiting On A War,
the not-so-veiled David Bowie tribute Medicine At Midnight
and especially the anthemic punk-rock incursion No Son of Mine
offer enough variety to make it one of their best albums.
The tricks, however, are easy to spot:
Holding Poison adds a catchy Smithereens-esque hook to the crunchy syncopated hard-rock of Free.
The improvement lies all in the ability to recycle old stereotypes.
Hail Satin (2021), credited to the Dee Gees, contains covers of Bee Gees songs and some live songs.
Taylor Hawkins died in 2022.
The Foo Fighters acted and played in
BJ McDonnell's film Studio 666 (2022).
Best songs of their career:
I'll Stick Around (1995),
Monkey Wrench (1997),
Times Like These (2002),
and
This Is A Call (1995).
and then far behind:
Aurora (1999),
Walk (2011),
Everlong (1997),
Learn To Fly (1999),
All My Life (2002) ,
The Pretender (2007),
My Hero (1995),
Best of You (2005),
Long Road to Ruin (2007),
...
