"In Your Honor": Rock. . . A-Bye Baby
Written: Sep 24 '07 (Updated Sep 24 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Most of the rock disc
Cons: The latter few songs on the rock disc, pretty much all of the acoustic disc
The Bottom Line: "In Your Honor" is one amazing disc, and one terrible one.
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| dbcint's Full Review: In Your Honor by Foo Fighters |
"I’ve got another confession to make"…
When it comes to music – and in particular, concerts – there’s a couple of regrets I have from 2005. I wish Kelly Clarkson could have come to New Zealand like she’d planned. I wish I’d done something about getting Green Day tickets before they’d sold out. However, I really regret not even becoming a Foo Fighters fan before their concert was sold out. I’d always enjoyed the singles I heard, but never bothered to pick up an album, until about a week after their show sold out. My local record store had huge "restock your rock" sale, and I picked up the debut, self-titled Foo Fighters album, along with their more recent release One By One for a total of less than $30. Within the next week or two, I’d completed the entire backcatalogue, including the album which brought Foo Fighters the most hype here in New Zealand, In Your Honor.
"I’m your fool"
I’m not normally one to fall for hype, so I didn’t expect In Your Honor to be absolutely fantastic. The first disc I put in was the rock one, and I just got blown away. The album kicks off with the title track, and it was everything I’d come to expect from the band. It started off slowly with some excellent guitar work, and built up to the arrival of lead singer Dave Grohl’s vocals. It continues on in this vein until after the ninety-second mark, which saw the coming of the drums, and from there the track just took off. Listening to the rest of the rock disc, it became clear this was the perfect start – very indicative of what’s to come.
"Pleased to meet you, take my hand"
"No Way Back" continues in a similar vein, before we get to the mammoth single that launched this album, "Best Of You". For those of you who haven’t yet heard this, I suggest you track it down immediately if you like rock of any kind. When compared to a couple of their earlier hits such as Monkey Wrench or All My Life, "Best Of You" may seem a little lacking on the first listen, but it soon becomes obvious just how brilliant this song is. This is power-driven rock at it’s finest.
"Wouldn’t wanna resist, or be abused"
Second single "DOA" follows, and those who have had any doubts about Foo Fighters until now have no excuses left. By no means is this as big, loud or anthematic as "Best Of You", but it’s a lot more complex. "DOA" is layer upon layer of pure rock, and is one of the best songs Foo Fighters have ever recorded. "Hell", the shortest song on the album, has a bit of a Lone Ranger sounding intro, which only lasts for a few seconds before launching into a full-blown guitar driven track. A lot of the songs on this album seem to rely heavily on Grohl’s voice, but "Hell" is powered by the guitar, and is all the better for it.
"You’ve got to talk to talk to talk to get it all out"
The rock disc of this album seems to go by pretty quickly, and that illusion is only enhanced by the fact that the sixth track is called "The Last Song". It’s not the last song, but if it was, they’d be going out on a high note. Easily the best thing about this track is the drums, which are noticeable mainly because it just sounds like the same beat over and over every few seconds, and that repetition is so simple that the drumming on this track almost leaves the rest of the track for dead. This is followed by "Free Me", which finds Grohl almost literally singing his soul out. Whereas Mariah Carey claims to need a whole album to emancipate herself, Grohl does it in a little over four and a half minutes. "Free me right now, you take it from me, take it from me"
"It’s a shame we have to die my dear"
Unfortunately, "Free Me" is the last great song on this double disc set. The rest of the songs on the rock disc each have a few redeeming qualities, but for the most part "Resolve", "The Deepest Blues Are Black" and "End Over End" all sound like they should be on the acoustic disc. "Resolve" has been released as the third single, and when I heard it on radio, I thought it was from the acoustic disc. That being the case, I thought the acoustic disc didn’t sound like it would be too bad at all. However, when I discovered the very acousticy sounding "Resolve" was on the rock disc, that sent up a couple of red flags. If that was classed as rock, what was going to be classed as acoustic? And why release three singles in a row from the rock disc? What was wrong with the acoustic disc that they didn’t see fit to release a single from it?
"A little bit of Resolve is what I need now"
One spin of the acoustic disc told me all I needed to know. Turns out my little red flags were right on target. In short, the big Foo Fighters double album experiment had failed. The acoustic side of this album is so lacking, they’d have been better off scrapping it, shuffling the last few tracks of the rock disc around so they were interspersed with the rest, and just releasing an ordinary album. The fact of the matter is that "Resolve", "The Deepest Blues Are Black" and "End Over End" are the best acoustic songs you’ll find on this double-album, and they’re on the rock disc.
"Follow me into the trees, I will lead the way"
I don’t consider myself to be an expert on Foo Fighters or anything – it’s only in the past couple of years or so that I’ve picked up all their albums (with the exception of new album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace - released in New Zealand today) – but I know they’ve done some great acoustic stuff. Disenchanted Lullaby, Walking After You and My Hero all spring to mind. So how did they fail so miserably here? Simple. On their previous albums, the acoustic tracks are separated from one another using the rock tracks. Here, that’s not the case, and for the most part, the acoustic disc sounds like one great big song designed to put you to sleep.
"When he plays, no-one speaks"
However, there are a couple of standout tracks. The first one arrives in the form of "Friend Of A Friend", which is so mellow it feels like the word "acoustic" was taken to a whole new level for this track. It feels completely different from anything to have come before it on this particular disc. On the flipside, "Cold Day In The Sun" almost belongs on the rock disc. As far as Foo Fighters songs go, it’s pretty average (which still makes it a lot better than some of the schtick on radio today), but compared to the rest of the acoustic disc, it stands out as easily the best song. Then there’s "Razor", the album closer, which sounds more like a ditty than a song, and that’s a good thing on this disc. Not only that, but the subject matter is so completely random (ode to my shaving implement) it sounds comical.
"Make up your mind, I need to know, I need to know tonight"
Overall though, the acoustic disc is a grave letdown from a band who are certainly capable of better. In fact, some tracks from this disc are featured on Skin & Bones, the somewhat recent Foo Fighters live CD/DVD, and they sound a lot better there. The rock disc, on the other hand, would easily have been one of the best rock albums released over the last couple of years and warrants four stars on it’s own. To be fair and logical, my rating here should be three stars, splitting the difference between a four star disc and a two star disc. But sometimes fairness and logic need to be thrown out the window, and I just can’t give an album containing such brilliance as the majority of the rock disc anything less than four stars. If you don’t already have In Your Honor, I would recommend downloading the tracklisting below from iTunes, and buying the Skin & Bones discs instead of the full acoustic side of In Your Honor
In Your Honor – The best of both discs on one disc
In Your Honor
No Way Back
Best Of You
DOA
Hell
The Last Song
Resolve
Free Me
Friend Of A Friend
Cold Day In The Sun
Razor
"I did it, it’s over, and I feel fine"
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dbcint
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Member: Dean Cowie
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Reviews written: 198
Trusted by: 39 members
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