Foo Fighters - One By One

One By One showed up online quite a while before it hit streets and I refused to listen to it because I heard it wasn't all that great and didn't want to disappoint myself early on. So I waited until I got a promo copy and finally gave it a listen. Well sorta. First I had to bypass a little copy protection so I could actually listen to the CD while typing this review, damn RIAA. For the two months leading up to the release, all Dave Grohl talked about was how this record rocked and was the best Foo Fighters record, etc. Needless to say, he created high expectations for it. To top things off the first single "All My Life" was one of the most rockin Foo Fighters songs yet and they even put it as Track 1 on the CD. However, disappointment starts to kick in as you progress through the album. The songs are good, it just doesn't live up to the comments Dave was making. There are too many slow songs like "Burn Away", which is a nice song, but pretty boring. Then you have tracks like "Lonely As You" which have a little more umph to them, but still has an overall lackluster appeal. This pattern pretty much repeats itself throughout One By One. Notable exceptions would be "Low" which shows that drumming for Queens of the Stone Age has clearly rubbed off on Dave as it sounds much like something they would have written and the seven and a half minute closer "Come Back" which rolls through various tempos and reminds you why the Foo Fighters are so fucking good. If you were disappointed with There Is Nothing Left to Lose then don't automatically rule out the new record. One By One is basically a hybrid between the Foo Fighters of old and the more recent stuff they have released. It contains some really strong songs that show that Dave and crew still have it in them, but disappointingly it still maintains that pop feel that the band moved closer to with There Is Nothing Left to Lose. However, in listening to the record you can tell that it is one of those that will grow on you. Often albums that take you a while to appreciate, end up being the ones you cherish the most. [www.foofighters.com]