Foo Fighters continue to evolve and escalate

Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters will forever, regardless how big they get, operate in the Nirvana’s shadow. The Foos may sell zillions of albums but their influence will never match Grohl’s previous outfit‘s mythical effort. The issue is not helped by regular reminders of the Kurt Cobain-fronted band’s legacy alike the ‘Greatest Hits’ that was released just a week after the Foo’s ‘One By One’ album a few years ago.

Still, ten years already, a whole f**king decade, Foo Fighters have been around!? 10 glorious years with 4 albums and 2 million tours, give or take the odd show/festival [from the most hardworking band on the planet], a couple of personnel changes, countless incredible memories and the rest is his story! Grohl also earned himself the [unofficial] title of “the nicest man in rock’… Who got married between these two albums and again found time to do some extra-curricular drumming for Nine Inch Nails and Garbage. [The latter outfit’s member being Butch Vig, the producer of ‘Nevermind’.]

Foo Fighters have released their most ambitious work to date, ‘In Your Honour’ being a two-course offering: one side rock and the other acoustic. One helluva rock beast on one disc - easily their heaviest set yet, busily unleashing hooks and sufficiently dripping with their trademark, snarling melodies. It seems the creative juices were flowing without any snag for the difference from the previous opus, ‘One By One’, that had its original set of songs replaced with completely different material.

The Acoustic album brings shock to your system with its sheer, neat, pure beauty. It even boasts a bossa nova with pop-jazzette Norah Jones, a track written and sung by drummer Taylor Hawkins, with Dave on drums and John Paul Jones [ex-Led Zeppelin] guesting on a couple of tracks too, giving it that extra dimension... [There is a talk of there being a tour exclusively dedicated to this part of the album - later this year - in smaller theatres.]

Some time ago the multi-talented Grohl told us: “For me, every album should make you feel like you’ve achieved something, you gain confidence and you look forward to going on stage and sharing new song with people, as well as doing the old ones better than we ever had. It is exciting, still exciting and I can do it tonight and any night… Which makes you feel as confident as an old guy.”

Most artists claim their current albums are their best work and Grohl is not an exception but he went a tad further this time by instructing his fans:

“When someone comes up to you and asks which Led Zeppelin album they should buy, you should say ‘Physical Graffiti’, and, in 20 years, when your kid comes up to you and asks which Foo Fighters album he or she should buy, I want you to say ‘In Your Honour’.”

Well… almost.

8.2/10