808 Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (1997)

Studio Album - Rock

About the Act:

Dave Grohl was the drummer for the band Nirvana. You've probably heard of them, they had that chap Kurt Cobain as frontman, the one who died. While with Nirvana, our Dave started to write songs, and to record some demos. He was quite shy about them, and strongly influenced by Kurt's song writing. 

When Kurt died in 1994, and Nirvana stopped as a result, Dave booked some studio time and recorded some of his songs. He played everything himself, apart from one bit of guest guitar. He then touted the tape around under the name "Foo Fighters" - deliberately using a name that was a plural so that it would seem like it was a band and not just him. He was also not intending to make a big splash, just to have a small run of copies, and stay anonymous. Somehow that didn't happen. The tape got released as an album, he recruited a band to tour the songs and things went on from there. There have been some member changes (but not that many), and they are still going, 9 albums later. 

As a band, they have been very successful, and are particularly known for the humour of their music videos.

About the Album:

This was the second album released under the name "Foo FIghters" but was effectively their debut album as a band, as the first album was really a Dave Grohl solo project. The album represents a departure from Grunge, into a broader and poppier rock sensibility.

My History with this Album:

None. I became aware of Foo Fighters in my MTV-watching days in the late 90s/early 2000s, especially for some fun videos they did.

Review:

This is a strong album, a good collection of songs. The music was at the time very contemporary, and to my limited knowledge was somewhat pioneering in sound. Some tracks are verging on the metal with fast-changing overdriven rhythm guitar chords (very tight), and vocals that verge on the screaming (still tonal but with so much gravel in the voice that it sounds quite like Kurt). Some are more like the Nu Punk that was emerging at the time (Green Day, The Offspring). Some tracks have that kind of quiet/loud dynamic that Nirvana did, and some are lighter. February Stars is almost Alternative Rock/Emo. It really is a big mixture of different tones and textures, but definitely in the big rock end of the spectrum mostly. Harmonically, some tracks are more unusual, and some are pretty straightforward. They brought in a producer to specifically make it more pop/radio friendly, and that was achieved, while still retaining the rock feel. It is carefully produced, and is as a result more accessible than it might have been. Commercially, this was probably a good move as they got good commercial success and exposure, this being their breakthrough album.

One of the features is Dave Grohl's voice. It's not that distinctive a voice, but it is versatile. He can go from very gentle to loud and screamy and anywhere in-between. The performance is kind of muted, expressive but in a limited way - maybe that's just compression on the vocals. The lyrics are quite personal to Dave, which is nice. There is an emotional journey to the album, which would be easy to ignore by just focusing on the music.

In some ways it would be an easy album to overlook. At the time it maybe stood out as being different more than it does now, as a lot of the approach has become part of the accepted norms of rock. It's very versatile and varied. Recommended for anyone who likes rock, to be honest.

7.8/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/30ly6F6Xl0TKmyBCU50Khv

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6ogdCG3tAWhXHYSwLUNfLetLs-5k8rMZ

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colour_and_the_Shape