One of the Foo Fighters worst albums, but its still got some good songs (One By One - Foo Fighters)

Name: SnooP_WiggleS

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Product:	One By One - Foo Fighters
Date:	17.12.07 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A few great Foo Fighters tunes here

Disadvantages: quite a few average songs. Awful sound quality due to poor mastering.

The album that came after the Foo Fighters 'There Is Nothing Left To Loose' was always going to be difficult. Arguably that was their best album, with a great consistentency of catchy rock tunes, definitely a favorite. So does One By One soar to those heights? or does it fall short? In short it isn't anywhere near as good, but still has a few memorable tunes. What it doesn't have is the consistency however, with many songs being largely forgettable. So a rundown of each song:

All My Life:
A great opener, a simple guitar riff that doesn't get tiring. This is classic foo fighters rock material, but with a darker edge. It really sets the mood of the album as something darker both in the style of guitar work, the mix (more bass oriented). Lyrically its also a bit of surprise (about giving head) a little dark even.

Low:
With a few tweaks this could have been integrated right into all my life to make a big 7 minute song, its a similar sound but even darker in style and lyrics. Not a bad thing at all, the guitar riff is fast and energetic, making this my favourite on the album.

Have it All:
This one doesn't do it so well for me, its a bit more laid back, but i just cant stand listening to it. I'll cover this in more detail later but the mastering has absolutely ruined this song in a distorted bass mess. The lead guitar riff gets a little tiring perhaps, but not everyone will find that true. One of the forgettable tunes.

Times Like These:
Another great foo fighters rock anthem, a great catchy guitar riff that doesn't get annoying. In particular the chorus 'Its time likes these, each time and time again' is so memorable and classic. Almost perfection in songwriting. Again mastering almost ruins it though sound wise.

Disenchanted lullaby:
Starts off acoustically and slow, but the chorus is brutual, and in my opinion not in a good way. One of the few songs on this album I'll usually skip.

Tired Of You:
A better effort, a clean guitar fill going through the whole song, though perhaps a bit too much 'spring reverb' on it which gets a little annoying. It feels a bit slow perhaps, but thats half the point. Memorable enough, its a competent song and interesting enough. I'd say that every song on there is nothing left to loose is better though.

Halo:
Another classic foo fighters rock song, but for some reason doesn't click as being a catchy memorable song as some of the others do. Its good enough though.

Lonely As You:
This picks up as being better than Halo, and definately is more memorable. It flows great from the simple acoustic guitar + vocals intro, then into the verse with full band. It also follows a trademark mix of this album where vocals are pretty much always vocal either in harmony (singing different notes) or unison (singing same notes). Great chorus.

Overdrive:
Like Lonely as you another great catchy song. good chorus but It gets a bit repetitive perhaps though since he says 'overdrive where going life or death' again and again.

Burn Away:
Another good tune, not that memorable but thats not a problem in this case, i prefer the verses to the chorus however. Chorus is a bit uninspired.

Come Back:
One of the longest foo fighters songs at close to 8 minutes. It gives it time to do a great instrumental piece in the middle, simple but i like it, especially the simple acoustic chords and background piano. The rock bits are a distorted mess unfortunately due to mastering so i don't listen to it that much, in fact i don't listen to much of the album for that reason.

Sound Quality:
The basic ideas of mixing are great for this album. A good bass heavy mix with double up guitars in places and usually doubled up vocals. The 'dark' feel (ie slightly recessed mid range, plenty of bass) of the mix greatly complements the first couple of songs in particular. Unfortunately those involved in mastering this should be shot. Also the foo fighters themselves and anyone else involved with creating the album should be ashamed for allowing it to be released with such an awful master. All the songs distort whenever there is a kick drum or heavy bass guitar to a varying degree, none are acceptable. The problem largely is the bass, a bass heavy mix doesn't translate to a 'loud' cd which is obviously what the foo fighters wanted - not to be even a touch quieter than other cds at the time. But even so it could have been done much listenable had the 'brick wall limiter' used to raise the levels without distorting being used competently (from a technical perspective needs a much shorter release time especially so it minimizes distortion introduced by limiter). As it is the better the bass response of your sound system, the more awful it sounds as the bass just distorts with every drum beat. I have to use an eq to lower the bass to make it listenable, but then it loses the punch of the mix, but its the lesser of the two evils. To compare i have plenty of other cds that are 'louder' but less objectionable as far as levels of distortion (low enough that most people wont notice). It really is a shame how obsessed bands and record labels are, willing to ruin the sound quality of a mix just to have the 'loud' cd.

for anyone wondering what I'm talking about heres a reasonable article on the issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Summary: If it had been mastered properly i'd give it 4, as it is a few good tunes but otherwise average.