Foo Fighters: Dave Grohl (vocals, guitar); Pat Smear (guitar); Nate Mendel (bass); William Goldsmith (drums).
Additional personnel: Greg Dulli (guitar).
Recorded at Robert Lang's Studio, Seattle, Washington in October 1994.
FOO FIGHTERS was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Dave Grohl's opening post-Nirvana salvo, FOO FIGHTERS seems merely ordinary only in the wake of the historic, sweetly abrasive sensations that his previous band was famous for. Full of both lilting summer-breeze melodies and search-and-destroy guitar blasts, it helps present the case that Grohl's punk-pop blueprint just might be as forward-minded as Kurt Cobain's was, if slightly less grungy and a bit more blue-collar.
Arriving at its destination by coupling pure '60's guitar-pop with the hyperkinetic pace of hardcore, FOO FIGHTERS takes most of its song-hooks for a joyous high-speed ride. Tracks such as the prankster-ish kiss-off, "This Is A Call," and the meditative-but-bitter "Good Grief" are perfect pop nuggets, with turbo-jet guitars propelling them. There are brief respites from such reckless rolling: the glammy verse-chorus-bridge of "Alone + Easy Target," the near-folky "For All The Cows," the sweetly Squeeze-like "Big Me." Yet, these are only refueling stops for Grohl (who recorded most of the album alone) before he turns the engines back on and blows through alterna-pop's speed limits.
Named after UFO-like apparitions that U.S. fighter pilots claimed to have seen during World War II, FOO FIGHTERS chooses to ignore Grohl's tumultous real-life connections (there are few, if any, kiss-and-tell lyrics) in favor of establishing a separate musical identity. It's as though the songwriter felt there was little of Planet Nirvana worth rehashing, and decided to find a new (if similar) musical satellite to call his own.
What the critics say...
Rolling Stone (1/25/96, p.41) - Ranked #2 in the 1996 Critics' Poll.
Rolling Stone (8/10/95, pp.56-57) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Like Nirvana's best work, these songs sagely embrace alternative rock's essential contradiction--this is 'popular' music devised by an alienated few....If FOO FIGHTERS has a theme, it's that music remains the ultimate anodyne."
Spin (12/95, p.63) - Ranked #20 on Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums Of '95.'
Spin (9/95, p.107) - 7 - Flawed Yet Worthy - "...Grohl hides behind his rapacious hooks like he disappears between his words...yet another impenetrable veil. FOO FIGHTERS seesaws efficiently, even rambunctiously, but there's a distance, a sheen to it..."
Entertainment Weekly (7/14/95, p.55) - "...Most of these songs are so disarmingly hooky, and yet such a raw blast of energy, that it's as if Lennon and McCartney had grown up in Seattle. Not necessarily an important album, but a surprising one." - Rating: B+
Q (8/95, p.118) - 3 Stars - Good - "...Foo Fighters are grunge-quite-lite....not with the country or pop leanings of, say, Soul Asylum, but with harder-sounding songs rendered accessible by layers of melody, much of it descended directly from Roger McGuinn if he'd had fewer strings..."
Melody Maker (12/23-30/95, pp.66-67) - Ranked #26 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's 'Albums Of The Year.'
Melody Maker (6/24/95, p.36) - Bloody Essential - "...a play-loud summer blast....the band is so blissfully on-the-money it's almost as perfect as The Young Gods, were the Swiss maestros weaned on Husker Du and Anastasia Screamed. We're talking THAT breathtaking, that joyously gone..."
Musician (9/95, p.88) - "...full of smart, crafty, kick-ass music....one can hear how much Grohl's musicianship guided Nirvana's sound--the album is packed with simple, forceful melodies, precise harmonies, and inventive arrangements..."
Village Voice (2/20/96) - Ranked #6 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
New York Times (Publisher) (1/6/96, p.C16) - Included on Jon Pareles' list of the Top 10 Albums of '95 - "...[Grohl's] songs stare down misgivings with cryptic lyrics, memorable tunes and a willingness to bash ahead."
NME (Magazine) (12/23-30/95, pp.22-23) - Ranked #12 in NME's 'Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995.
NME (Magazine) (6/24/95, p.54) - 9 (out of 10) - "...hurtling, memorable songs, satisfyingly crunchy guitars, and an unambiguously joyful spirit....Grohl sounds blazingly optimistic....[a] talented man at last gaining the confidence and wherewithal to seize control of his own artistic destiny....a massively important record..."
