| Product: |
One By One - Foo Fighters |
| Date: |
02/07/08 (91 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: The opening and closing tracks here are excellent.
Disadvantages: All nine tracks in between are incredibly bland.
Released in 2002, 'One by One' is the fourth studio album from the American rock band that is the Foo Fighters. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the band, I do however like to listen to the bands music from time to time as in the past the band has produced a number of absolutely excellent rock tracks I've found. 'One by One' consists of a total of eleven tracks and this therefore provides for 55 minutes of music.
The album gets off to a brilliant start with the high-tempo rock track that is 'All My Life'. The band actually released this one as the first single from the album and to listen to it's not hard to hear why. It's a fantastic rock track which possesses a brilliant driving guitar riff and the chorus also is absolutely exceptional here. The music created by the band here is really rather infectious; the chorus is strongly sung out by the bands vocalist Dave Grohl and always his voice is incredibly hard hitting. For me this is the absolute highlight of the album, it's the first track on the album and yet it's by far the best that the band has to offer here. Listening to the rest of the album you therefore have little else to look forward to, it's not a bad album but the powerful moments here are most definitely few and far between.
The problem with this album is that the music is for the most part just too weakly put across by the band, it's not a bad rock album; the music just isn't very memorable though and for the most part the tracks here just seem to all blend into one really with the band doing very little here in order to try and keep the listener interested. There's very little to get excited about here, after the brilliant start of 'All My Life' never again is there another track here of such an exceptionally high standard. 'Times Like These' was the second single released from this album, the track does absolutely nothing for me however and two further tracks were also released as singles from this album; 'Low' and 'Have It All', two of the weakest tracks from the album. The four tracks released were the first four from this album, it's only 'All My Life' that I personally am impressed by however and as the rest of the album unfolds rarely does the bands music ever entertain.
There is some great use of guitar here, some powerful drumbeats, and excellent bass lines also; it's actually vocally where the main failings lie here I feel. Vocally the music is incredibly bland, there's little enjoyment to be gained from listening to Dave Grohl's vocal performance here and the former Nirvana man does in fact make a bit of a disgrace of himself by failing the band so miserably here. 'Overdrive' is perhaps the most instrumentally powerful track on the album, vocally however the track is once more incredibly weak and the lyrics also are extremely poorly put across by the band here. 'One by One' sounds like an album from a band that is very short of ideas, a band that doesn't quite know where to go next with its sound, and hasn't quite decided what direction the music should next take. Instrumentally the album is quite well constructed, vocally however it doesn't sound like much effort has gone into this album at all and never is the vocal performance of Dave Grohl here ever particularly impressive.
'Come Back' is a great track to end the album on, the album begins on a high and also when it ends the music is supremely strong here. The guitars sound excellently distorted here, the vocals also are full of life and passionately put across for the first time on this album since opening anthem 'All My Life'. It's a rousing little number, very well put across by the band and both vocally and instrumentally here the music has very much to offer. It's a simple piece of music, incredibly effective however and aside from 'All My Life' is the best track that this 'One by One' album has to offer. The chorus is powerfully sung out, the verse also is magnificent, and almost here the band makes up for its failings throughout the rest of the album by putting to record an absolutely excellent closing track. Opening and closing tracks are extremely important to me, and the one thing that this 'One by One' album does have is a superb start and a fantastic finish. What comes in between track one and track eleven is not really worth listening to; both 'All My Life' and 'Come Back' are exceptional however and these are two tracks that I personally would very much recommend listening to.
This is certainly no classic album from the Foo Fighters, two tracks are excellent whilst the rest are incredibly bland. There's such a gulf in quality between the opening/closing tracks here and the rest of the music contained within this album, it provides for an extremely weird listening experience and I can't quite work out how the band managed it. After such a strong start the music quickly deteriorates in terms of quality here, there are nine extremely average rock tracks contained within this album and then with the final track of the album the band once more manages to find its spark. I'd definitely give 'All My Life' and 'Come Back' a listen, ignore the rest of the album however as there's really very little else to be gained from listening to the other nine tracks contained within this 'One by One' album release from the Foo Fighters. This is an incredibly bizarre musical sandwich from the fine American force of a rock band that is the Foo Fighters.
Summary: The album begins fantastically, finishes supremely, other than that though it's just a bit rubbish.
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