So why is Foo Fighters on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I have an unusual, perhaps even minority opinion about the Foo Fighters generally.
To take a step back, you won’t find many if any bigger Nirvana fans than yours truly, and then here we have Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters self-titled debut way up in elite territory at #32 on this best 1,000 albums ever project. The super fandom doth continue into Grohl’s sequel project, one might surmise.
Yes… but. Foo Fighters is the only album by the band to appear on the best 1k ever. It’s not that I think that any of the band’s follow up work is bad – and “Everlong” (especially the famous acoustic version performed on The Howard Stern Show back in the day) is rather great – but overall I find the post-Foo Fighters version of the band to be professional, mainstream rock radio-friendly – but not nearly as interesting or compelling.
Which doesn’t take anything at all away from the sensational debut record from 1995.
And additionally with no shade meant to be thrown at the rest of the band, I can’t help but think that part of the magic of Foo Fighters is that it was written and performed entirely by Dave Grohl.
Take a moment to consider that. Guitars, bass, drums, lyrics, vocals all by the same dude who heretofore was known as Nirvana’s drummer. Rather remarkable just on its own.
And Grohl was also the album’s co-producer, along with Barrett Jones! Check out this amazing bit, pulled from Wikipedia:
Grohl and Jones produced the record across a period of one week in October 1994, with Grohl on vocals and all instruments. Both would arrive in the morning at Robert Lang Studios, start production by noon and do four songs a day.[10] According to Grohl, during the recording process he would run from room to room, “still sweating and shaking from playing drums and [then] pick up the guitar and put down a track, do the bass, maybe another guitar part, have a sip of coffee and then go in and do the next song”.
There’s something in this where a super compressed timeframe and almost ludicrous ambition – a single performer and a producer – collide to produce an artistic masterpiece. I’d wager that Jack White would nod approvingly at this notion.
And in terms of the album’s production, I adore the sound on Foo Fighters: it’s fuzzed up and yet somehow warm and earthy. It sounds analog, old-school amplifiers that don’t exist anymore, tactile.
While it’s slightly obvious to note that Foo Fighters benefits from having the Nirvana drummer play drums on this record – it’s worth noting that the drums on this record are elite tier in terms of punch, production, and precision. A less nerdy way to say it is that the drums sound incredible.
There are very few records that sound as good as Foo Fighters from end to end, stripping away any consideration of the actual music that comes with it.
And on top of that, it’s an album that’s particularly well sequenced. “This Is A Call” eases us into the record’s sound, which in this case is both soothing and rocking, raw and yet just refined enough.
It segues effortlessly into the revved up hard rock joy of “I’ll Stick Around.” One could almost imagine a post-In Utero Kurt fronting this one, which I say as a massive compliment to what Grohl accomplished here (and essentially all on his own at that!).
From there, we get the absolutely sublime melodic pop of “Big Me,” followed by the excellent fuzzed alt rock attack of “Alone + Easy Target,” a number that I could imagine the Nirvana-worshipping Billy Corgan feeling a bit jealous that he hadn’t written himself.
“Big Me” also qualifies as one of the very best music videos of the 1990s, a dead-on Mentos parody masterclass. Also: it’s really fun to see Germs, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters alum Pat Smear show up as well.
Over 12 tracks, Foo Fighters goes on and on this way, finely crafted pop alternating with exquisite aggressive rock numbers. And I absolutely adore “For All The Cows,” which manages to hit both modes exceptionally well in the same song.
“Wattershed” contains one of the best hard rock guitar riffs I’ve ever heard, and a track that kicks all manner of ass and other bodily bits.
On a final note, another reason Foo Fighters makes me happy is that you can feel Dave Grohl rebuilding himself from the wreckage of Kurt’s suicide and finding joy in creating music once again.
Some stats & info about Foo Fighters
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Hard Rock, Alternative Rock, Grunge
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Foo Fighters released? 1995
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #32 out of 1,000
Foo Fighters on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Foo Fighters that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
This is a call to all my past resignations. This is a call to all.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.