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Post by ganews on Jan 1, 2023 18:33:32 GMT -5
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 2, 2023 22:38:04 GMT -5
I do not own this album and I don't remember it very well. So, this should be fun. Will try to give it a listen this week.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Jan 4, 2023 13:36:37 GMT -5
I would imagine that Foo fans are very tired of the "dad rock" pejorative thrown at the band but, to be honest, I'd argue that they leaned into the image of "last of the blue-collar arena rockers" almost from the beginning. Remember their utterly pointless "Baker Street" cover? Google tells me that it was the b-side of the "My Hero" single in European countries, but I recall it getting some US airplay too.
That said, I'm looking forward to listening to this in its entirety for the first time. "Learn To Fly" is my favorite Fighters thing I'm aware of outside of the classic "Everlong" video (which now reads as Michel Gondry's dry run for Eternal Sunshine). I just heard "Learn To Fly" on a classic rock station in a diner on New Year's Eve, fortuitous because I was really hoping for an excuse to ponder my advancing age.
Thoughts TK.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 8, 2023 18:49:22 GMT -5
I did give it a one-time listen this weekend. Honestly, I found it a bit bland. The lyrics are so banal. It's not really interesting musically. Perhaps fitting, the only piece of it I liked was Hawkins' drumming.
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Post by ganews on Jan 10, 2023 11:51:08 GMT -5
I haven't heard a Foo Fighters album newer than The Colour and the Shape which I enjoyed greatly though it's been years now. But I kept listening to commercial terrestrial radio through 2010, and boy have I heard Foo Fighters a lot, especially "Learning to Fly".
This record had two distinct-to-me sides, divided neatly into the two commutes to work over which I listened to it. The first half was Foo Fighters: pretty good, nice to hear another Grohl scream. The second half was chill Foo Fighters which is fine but will also put you to sleep in a hurry. I had liked "Walking After You" from the previous album (and the 1999 X-Files Movie soundtrack), so maybe that's why I like "Next Year" so very much. I don't know how I first encountered the latter, but I have loved everything about it since downloading it in college some twenty years ago. That said, half the album didn't need to sound like that.
The drumming was fine but I don't know what Taylor Hawkins brought to this album particularly that made it very different from Grohl's drumming - though again, I haven't listened to those first two albums in a long time. Frankly I was and am mildly disappointed that this album won the poll over artists who were at the center of the albums nominated.
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Post by King Charles’s Butterfly on Jan 10, 2023 20:36:01 GMT -5
The drumming was fine but I don't know what Taylor Hawkins brought to this album particularly that made it very different from Grohl's drumming - though again, I haven't listened to those first two albums in a long time. Frankly I was and am mildly disappointed that this album won the poll over artists who were at the center of the albums nominated. Yeah, my impression was basically “this is good rock drumming” and that was it.
Continuing the radio comments I remember hearing people lamenting that stuff like this started to appear on oldies radio but honestly it kind of belonged there, from the beginning (if we’re using “oldies” to mean what it did when I was a kid in the late 90s; I know people, both older and younger, complained about 50s-early 60s stuff being displaced from radio too). It fits in perfectly—while this isn’t really my area I could barely identify anything Seattle about this. Put almost any song on this between “Helter Skelter” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” and it would probably work fine, though it would feel like filler (and I’m not the biggest Beatles fan). There’s nothing wrong with that at all, and it takes more skill to make hyper-competent rock that’s not pop rock but has wide appeal, but it definitely blurred into the background for me. There’s a place for that, though, and it’s good background.
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monodrone
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Post by monodrone on Jan 12, 2023 6:14:25 GMT -5
I haven't heard a Foo Fighters album newer than The Colour and the Shape which I enjoyed greatly though it's been years now. But I kept listening to commercial terrestrial radio through 2010, and boy have I heard Foo Fighters a lot, especially "Learning to Fly".
This record had two distinct-to-me sides, divided neatly into the two commutes to work over which I listened to it. The first half was Foo Fighters: pretty good, nice to hear another Grohl scream. The second half was chill Foo Fighters which is fine but will also put you to sleep in a hurry. I had liked "Walking After You" from the previous album (and the 1999 X-Files Movie soundtrack), so maybe that's why I like "Next Year" so very much. I don't know how I first encountered the latter, but I have loved everything about it since downloading it in college some twenty years ago. That said, half the album didn't need to sound like that.
The drumming was fine but I don't know what Taylor Hawkins brought to this album particularly that made it very different from Grohl's drumming - though again, I haven't listened to those first two albums in a long time. Frankly I was and am mildly disappointed that this album won the poll over artists who were at the center of the albums nominated.
This is more of a compliment than you maybe think it is. Taylor Hawkins is stepping into the shoes of one of the great drummers of his era, a drummer and band leader who had re-recorded all the drum parts on their last album after being dissatisfied with William Goldsmith's performances on the initial recordings of The Colour And The Shape. That's a high pressure environment to come into and he made the transition look seamless. That's really impressive! |
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monodrone
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Post by monodrone on Jan 12, 2023 11:42:23 GMT -5
It will shock no one to learn that I am familiar with this album. The singles from this album were the first Foo Fighters songs I heard and the album was the first of theirs that I listened to (I technically didn't own it but my little brother did and it ended up living more in my CD player than his). This would have been in 2000 and my main memory of the time when I put these songs on is of playing Metal Gear Solid which is probably not the best game to attempt to complete with the sound off but that's how I'd decided to play all games so that was that. Peak Foos Fandom for me was from that time to about 2006 and getting to see them play festival headliner slots twice (2002/2005) are live music highlights for me. I don't care too much for any of their recorded output after There Is Nothing Left To Lose aside from 2010s Wasting Light which was pretty good, actually, but that's fine - four albums that I'm always happy to listen to is a good effort for any band. Let's talk about Good Rock Drumming, something that was sorely lacking when we talked about Pink Floyd towards the end of last year. Good Rock Drumming doesn't have to be complicated or ground-breaking but it does need an element of flair to elevate a song, a flash here and there to keep the listener on their toes and keep things from becoming stale and dull. Where is this happening on There Is Nothing Left To Lose? What is separating Taylor Hawkins from a boring basic beat deployer? Let us list the ways: Stacked Actors - the open hi-hat hits on the 1 half way through the intro don't have to be there and the songs better for their existence. A Bossa Nova beat in the verses! Where are the other popular rock songs with Bossa Nova beats? I don't know. I've always liked the blap bap-a-baps in the middle 8 with a healthy diet of flams with the snare and floor tom. Breakout - I love the way the whole kit sounds on this album, it's a very clean production when it comes to the drums. Every hit from the hi-hat on the 16ths section during the verses (good variation!) is clear and crisp and the ride bell in the chorus has the kind of ring on it that I'd always try to emulate given the chance. I got distracted singing along here. Learn To Fly - I learned this song while in a high-school covers band when I was 18 which culminated in us playing it at our class prom in what might be the only time I've performed something at a slower tempo than it was recorded. It seemed to take forever to get through and I'm not good at playing slowly to slugging my way through those rolls in the choruses without flying ahead of everyone else was a struggle. They're good fills, by the way. Not just straight 16ths around the kit but a snare roll single tom snare roll tom roll combo that you do get a lot on this album. A guy's got to have a style though so you can't be too surprised to find variations on a theme! You get the use of the tambourine kind of thing on the verses here too which is a neat way to shake things up instead of going with the more obvious open hi-hat accents. Gimme Stitches - some sort of shaker and why not? The Boom-boom-bap! intro is a move I've always got time for. Not drums but shout out to Nate Mendel on this track, big fan of his basslines here. Taylor goes more on snare to crash/open hi-hat fills compared to the earlier songs. Generator - what I like here is the 8th note fills in the middle of the chorus, it would be easy to try and blast out something fast but the slow roll is a good build to the second part of the chorus. Aurora - a lesson in restraint. There's no need for mucking about in most this song, it's straightforward and nothing would be gained in overcomplicating things during the quieter sections so he just doesn't. He still gets to show off when it all kicks off (relatively speaking) in the outro and the section from 5:00 to 5:15 is one of my favourite drum parts on the whole album. Live-In Skin - probably the least essential song on the album. I'll still listen to that garbage, I'll keep on drinking it up but I can admit that it really is just there and it's making me think about selecting rations for Solid Snake to eat after the Sniper Wolf mission so I can't skip it. Next Year - the album version is Too Long. The single version is better for not having the bonus minute of outro despite the lovely snare work on show. I like the drum fills as transitions between song sections while everything else drops out to reset. Are these the first triplets on the album in the transition to the "say goodbye" part? I think so. Hurray for triplets! Headwires - the simple double flam to kick things off is a thing that happens. The rest of the song is there and yes I do know all the words and can sing along but there's not much going on outside of a little transitional flourish of snares and open hi-hats while a guitar chord fades out before the double flam from the start pops up to reset us. Ain't It The Life - sure. It's a pleasant song. Breezy. Nothing to write about though. MIA - oh yeah, I nearly lumped this in with Ain't It The Lift but it's got a li'l march roll going on. I really like this song as a whole, I used to hear it almost every day as part of a playlist of relatively quiet songs for my oldest daughter when she was about 2 so this one, and only this one, reminds me of something other than hiding in a virtual box to hide from CCTV cameras in a military base. The rest of the band is good at what they do too. |
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Post by King Charles’s Butterfly on Jan 12, 2023 14:19:52 GMT -5
Let's talk about Good Rock Drumming Yes, this is what I was waiting for. |
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Post by pantsgoblin on Jan 12, 2023 14:24:04 GMT -5
Let's talk about Good Rock Drumming Yes, this is what I was waiting for. |
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Post by MyNameIsNoneOfYourGoddamnBusin on Jan 12, 2023 16:42:02 GMT -5
The drumming was fine but I don't know what Taylor Hawkins brought to this album particularly that made it very different from Grohl's drumming - though again, I haven't listened to those first two albums in a long time. Frankly I was and am mildly disappointed that this album won the poll over artists who were at the center of the albums nominated.
I don't know track-by-track who did what, but Dave Grohl did the drumming quite a few of the songs tracks on this album. As someone who is not a drums aficionado, I really can't tell enough to distinguish between them despite being familiar with both. |
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jan 14, 2023 8:12:39 GMT -5
monodrone were you successful in your attempt to beat the video game Metal Gear Solid?
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monodrone
Prolific Poster
Come To Brazil
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Post by monodrone on Jan 16, 2023 9:32:27 GMT -5
monodrone were you successful in your attempt to beat the video game Metal Gear Solid? Yes! I went on to never play another game in the series despite enjoying my time with the first iteration. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 17, 2023 6:16:21 GMT -5
You know, it occurred to me when this album won that I've never actually listened to a Foo Fighters album all the way through. I'm familiar with a small handful of singles from radio play or general background osmosis but I had never actually chosen to sit down and listen to an album. So I did!
This is dull, though. Grohl seems like a decent fellow and sure can bellow his way through a tune or two but there's just not that much here to get a handle on. It's not bad, as such, but it just doesn't seem like there's an awful lot to get excited about. The first side has a bit of energy to it and it seems like the band are at least partly engaged (even if it's a bit third-gear - it never really quite gets up to speed) but the second side it just sounds like nobody is really all that fussed. "Just two more songs and we are one step nearer to the contract being fulfilled lads!" I can easily imagine any member of the band mumbling in the studio while this was being recorded.
I'm not averse to trying other FF albums because I'm sure they must be able to do better than this rather lackadaisical effort. But there's also not much from this album that's going to encourage me to do that in a hurry.
5/10
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Crash Test Dumbass
AV Clubber 
ffc what now
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Jan 31, 2023 21:34:21 GMT -5
Is this the best Foo Fighters album? Not really. Do I even really like more than maybe two songs* on it? Also not really. Can I tell the difference between Hawkins' drumming** and Grohl's? Absolutely not. Have I been really stressed and busy this month and didn't get around to posting this until nearly the last minute? Yes.
Did I submit this to the poll entirely because of my huge crush on the late Taylor Hawkins that was inspired by a single shot in the Learn To Fly video where the camera is positioned over Hawkins' trap kit as he stares directly up into the camera? Yes. Very yes.
* Learn To Fly and Headwires; Aurora if I'm in the mood for it
** I would argue that this is partly because Hawkins was inspired by Grohl as a drummer to begin with; there's some Foo Fighters behind the scenes video where Grohl, on guitar, starts jokingly playing the intro to Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Hawkins comes in on the drum part like he's been waiting his entire life for this moment
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repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
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Post by repulsionist on Feb 7, 2023 17:05:36 GMT -5
For all the press and interviews that were done around this album, their crib sheet version in Wikipedia appears to imply this was just three guys hanging out and having a blast making the music they wanted to.
No disparagement leveled at the initiator of this choice, but this album isn't the thing for me.
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