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Foo FightersIn Your Honor SonyBMG Best Of You is the single of the year. When I first heard the new Foo Fighters track assault the Triple J airwaves I was left a quivering mess on the floor. More passionate, heavy and rocking then anything on 2002's 'One By One,' Best Of You left me unhealthily excited for 'In Your Honor', if quietly sceptical that it could live up to that first glimpse. Then it did. Foo was fought. Ass was kicked. Split into two majestic discs, one 'loud', one 'not so loud', this album is pretty detrimental to the last two Foo Fighters albums, especially 'One By One.' It makes you realise that their heart can't really have been in it, because this is what passion sounds like: raw, unadulterated energy. The dichotomy afforded to Dave Grohl & Co. by splitting into a rock and an acoustic disc means that there isn't much middle ground, and that could be considered a down side; or it could be that finally that kick-ass live performance that we all saw at the 2003 Big Day Out is able to translate onto a recording. For the rock disc Grohl is yelling for about 80 percent of the time and at every available opportunity the Foos rip their guitars, break down the beat and pound your senses. Opening with the epic title track, the band starts at a higher gear than ever before and stays there. Free Me is the heaviest Foo Fighter track ever, but tracks like DOA and No Way Back prove that Grohl never lost his love for melody. But, just when you thought you knew what was going on in those tracks, bam, bam, bam, there's a breakdown, there's some improvisation, there's some wailing distortion. It's an assault. However, the acoustic disc is where the real surprise hits. Opening with the beautiful Still, about a suicide on a train tracks which Grohl witnessed as a kid, the Foo frontman lays his heart bare, subtle guitar picking and throbbing bass moulding a hugely emotive soundscape. Nirvana-esque Friend Of A Friend is fantastically moving, while tracks like the more upbeat Miracle, featuring Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, are classic Learn To Fly Foo Fighters with the distortion turned off. Just because it's quieter doesn't mean the acoustic disc hits home any more softly than the rock one. Epic. Majestic. Awe-inspiring. Kick-ass. Dave Grohl may not have made the album they'll be remembered for as he hoped (he can't exactly go back in time and take Everlong and My Hero off 'The Colour And The Shape'), but I think album of the year's good enough for anyone.  |
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