Following Dave Grohl’s appearances this year on the Tenacious D album and as drummer on the new Queen of the Stone Age album (as well pre orchestrating the scheduled metal-edge project, Probot) comes fourth ‘Foo’ studio disc, One By One. And though it’s not exactly unknown why it’s been so long coming about – it’s a miracle it’s been made at all.
What with the almost slapstick debacle that was (and still is) the Kurt and Courtney show hovering like a malodorous cloud above them, not to mention drummer Taylor Hawkins decision to embed himself still further into a narcotic haze of gargantuan proportions and the distasteful rehab that was to ensue it’s remarkable that there was anything left of the Foos to rekindle. But rekindled they are and bar a few duff filler tracks, One By One presents us with one of the hardest, most consistent Foo albums to date.
Getting in there before the rest of us, Grohl not surprisingly deemed his last hit, ‘Learn To Fly’ a ‘piece of shit’. And whilst there’s still no denying Grohls indebtedness to Bob Mould and Husker Du (‘Times Like These’, ‘Have It All’, ‘Halo’) and that he can still dish out shit with the best of them when he tries’ (‘Overdrive’) the album just about proves the Foos can glide safely beyond their original promise as a Nirvana consolation band and occupy a distinct and considerable niche in the indices of 90s and noughties rock.
Recorded in a three week hell for leather period and still managing to blend a grungey rock dissonance with the sugary amplitude of a fine melody, Grohl has handcrafted an album that surpasses in almost every respect the self-played, self-abused indulgence of the Foos difficult to place debut album.
With a skull and crossbones pursuit of only the purest of rock diamonds, the album pelts headlong into opening stormer, ‘All My Life’ – a beefed-up, finely chiselled gem of a song that ably captures the angular, bleak and incantatory spirit of Nirvana without actually stealing anything by way of obvious signatures. ‘Low’ continues the theme, plundering as it does those same head-thumping riffs and dry as a bone production values as its predecessor. ‘Times Like These’, whilst making imprudent references to the likes of more traditional rock stalwarts like The Eagles and (imagine it if you can) gothic riffmongers like The Cult, is monstrously well conceived: massive chorus, infectious verses and fingers in the circuitry licks and drum feats.
Although you might be hard-pushed to unveil any covert Nirvana/Courtney Love references lyrically (unless you’re really desperate) the middle tracks ‘Disenchanted Lullaby’ and ‘Tired Of You’ (ably abetted by Queen’s Brian May) do reawaken the muted, haunted grunge of Mr Cobain in spirit.
Minus the couple of duff tracks, One By One is pure cut rock’ n’ roll: straight and to the point, full of attitude and salty, very salty.