Foo Fighters – In Your Honor

Artist: Foo Fighters

Title: In Your Honor

Label: RCA

Rating: 7/10

CORPORATE LINE: Foo Fighters fifth and definitive album opens with a statement of purpose universal in its passion. Dave Grohl could be singing to his wife, bandmates Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins and Chris Shiflett, or to any and every fan listening to the song. In truth, the song and the double album — one heavy as fuck, the other subtly laid back — are dedicated to all of the above: the friends, family and fans that have made the decade-long Foo Fighters odyssey possible.

“We’ve been a band for 10 years now,” says Grohl, channeling the band’s quandary at the outset of the In Your Honor sessions. “So what do we do? Do we make another album? Rush into making another record? So I came up with this idea. I thought since I’d just been all around the world for a year and a half screaming my ass off, I’d make a solo acoustic record…but disguise it as movie score. We’ve always had acoustic songs. Most of our rock songs were written on acoustic guitar, songs like ‘Times Like These,’ ‘Everlong’… I had this little studio up at my house and started recording all this music, some of it songs, some of it like a score, it was really beautiful, really coming out well then I listened to it and I was like ‘Wait a second: It sounds like the Foo Fighters. It sounds like the band.’

THE GREAT:
“What If I Do” and “Another Round” – These two acoustic tracks are gems in a wilderness of pop-punk anthems.
“On The Mend” – Harkens back to the first record the Foo Fighters cut. A gorgeous little song that never grows old.
“Virginia Moon” – This little salsa might be more ambitious than it lets on.

THE AVERAGE:
“Best Of You” – The first single will have you singing along. There is a point when you wonder if any of these singles will ever sound different from past singles.
“No Way Back” – Every element of the Foo records past—sweet pop-punk tracks that are hard to forget.
“The Last Song” – Toe-tapping. Too much of the usual Foo fare.
“Resolve” – Great up until Grohl growls the chorus. He sounds better actually singing and it’s a shame he has to ruin it with gruff vocals.

THE BAD:
Nothing.

FRANKLY: Dave Grohl has come a long way since his previous life as a drummer. The first Foo record is arguably their best and they haven’t quite created anything that great since. Grohl surely knows how to write catchy melodies and In Your Honor tends to bleed into another. Certainly, In Your Honor was ambitious—did it need to be two discs? Probably not.

+ Rae Gun