Disco de Foo Fighters: “Colour and the Shape”

Probably the best album to ever be released by the Foo Fighters, "The Colour & The Shape" further solidified Dave Grohl stepping out of grunge's shadow and making peace with the ghost of Kurt Cobain. Just about all the songs here on this album are catchy and seem made for radio friendly, but underneath that surface is a demonically comical feel combined with a lot of emotion. On songs like the short opener "Doll", "February Stars", and the classic single "Everlong" you can hear the raw emotion in Grohl's voice, and that is something that no one can fake. "Monkey Wrench" is still a great song, no matter how much it got overplayed, although another session of "My Hero" may prove nerve wracking considering it can be heard just about anywhere. Other great songs like "Hey! Johnny Park", "My Poor Brain", "See You", and "Walking After You" (featured on the X-Files film soundtrack) are all great songs as well, and the band's tight musicianship rounds out this excellent package. All in all, "The Colour & The Shape" is in my opinion the best Foo Fighters album yet, and is undoubtadly one of the finest albums of the 90's.

I've been a long time fan of Foo Fighters (since around 1995), and out of all the CD's that they have released as of 2003, The Colour and the Shape has proved to be the best one of all. Whoever said that in order for something to be catchy, it has to be cliche obviously missed the purchase of this album. Every song hooks you, and unlike most new rock bands, the hook isn't cheesy, overdone, or stolen from someone else. This CD blends the best of the old with the best of the new, giving hard rockers a delightful CD to rock out to (Monkey Wrench, Hey Johnny Park, My Poor Brain, Wind Up, My Hero, Enough Space, Everlong, New Way Home), and the fans of the new mellow sound of Foo Fighters a few songs to sit back and relax to (Doll, February Stars, Walking After You, See You, Up In Arms). Here are my reviews for the individual tracks:

DOLL (A)--The shortest song on the album, but probably the most overlooked. While it doesn't really feel like it belongs on the album, if it were taken off, the album would lose a great introductory song. A great short ballad.

MONKEY WRENCH (A+)--If you've been listening to the radio at all since 1997, you've probably heard this song. The first single off of the album, this song hooked listeners with it's catchy verses and chorus. Great proof that a song can have catchy verses and chorus. The song's style is similar to that of "All My Life" (One By One), it's more upbeat, a little less dark, and a little more fun. Great song to listen to when you're flying down the expressway in the summer with all the window's down.

HEY, JOHNNY PARK! (A+)--This song is a bit slower than the rest of the songs on the album, but it rocks. With it's hard rock intro, to the transition to a very soft guitar part, highlighting a very vulnerable, yet confident sounding Dave Grohl, this song will send you on a rollercoaster that is Dave Grohl's subconscience. I get goosebumps when Dave screams at the end of the song: "Now that I've found my reward, I'd throw it away long before I'd share a piece of mine with you."

MY POOR BRAIN (A+)--The intro to this song will throw you. It's confusing, loud, almost obnoxious, and right when you're about to skip to track 5, the noise ceases and all that's left is a very tight and simple drum beat, with a quieted simple guitar line. It remains somewhat quiet with a slightly uneasy feel to it, until the distortion pedal is hit, bringing all of the hard rock that the Foo's could muster up to a tremendous climactic chorus.

WIND UP (A)--Your typical hard rock song, with your untypical typicalness that is Foo Fighters. Hard all the way through, good til the last note.

UP IN ARMS (A+)--This song starts off nice and mellow, bringing to your ears a very 60's sounding guitar, drum, and base line. The intro ends about 50 seconds into the song, with it's last chord ringing out. Then the drums kick you in the [...] and your pushed into a fantastic poppy love song. A Foo Fighters classic.

MY HERO (A)--Probably the Foo Fighters most overplayed tune on the radio, you had to have been born yesterday to not have ever heard this song before.

SEE YOU (A)--This song has a very jazzy feel to it, and is done with an acoustic guitar with a drum-line that is so recessive, that the Foo's released an "acoustic-only" version of this song as a B-Side. You can't help but snap your fingers or clap your hands to this one.

ENOUGH SPACE (B+)--An overpowering song that is riding the thin line between hard rock and metal. Second only to the song "The Colour and the Shape" (also released as a B-Side) as far as hard rocking goes, this song is the perfect song for a crappy day.

FEBRUARY STARS (A+)--A very interesting transition from the hardest song on the album to the softest song on the album. This song is an amazing love ballad that soothes you throughout, and has a great build-up at the end which tips its hat to the power ballads of the 80's.

EVERLONG (A+++)--This is Foo Fighters best song ever written. A very dreamy hard rock song that sends chills up my spine every time I hear it. This song has been my favorite song of all time since I heard it the very first time. It's hard to find anyone that doesn't like this song, whether they are a fan of Foo Fighters or not.

WALKING AFTER YOU (A)--The remix of this song was released as a single, and can be found on the X-Files movie soundtrack. The version of the song on this album, though, is done acoustically with percussion (not a drum kit). In my opinion, the original version of the song that appears on this album sounds much better than the remix that was the 4th single to be released from this album. This song has amazing lyrics, that show just how bittersweet love can be.

NEW WAY HOME (A+++)--If there's one thing that Foo Fighters do well, it's composing an earth-shattering song to close each and every one of their albums with. This song has a build in it that is similar to that of "Come Back" (One By One), except this song rocks so much harder at the end, but it isn't really a hard rock sound...it's more of a very loud pop/rock ending, that just makes you want to jump around. This song is the Foo's best closer, and in my opinion is an even better closer than "Exhausted" (Foo Fighters).

BUY THIS ALBUM, OR MISS OUT ON THE BEST ROCK ALBUM OF THE 1990'S

The Foo Fighters' second album, their first as a "real band" (the first was just a Grohl solo project, essentially) has stood the test of time remarkably well. It has the all-too-rare combination of hard rock and melody. From the outstanding "Monkey Wrench" to the dramatic closer "New Way Home," the cd works as individual songs and as an album as a whole.

This edition with bonus tracks doesn't really offer anything new, but only enhances an already excellent cd by conveniently gathering together the b-sides from this era. I wouldn't describe the b-sides as necessary for anyone other than the hardcore fans (though, if you don't already own this album, you might as well get this edition.)

For those new to the Foo Fighters, this is a great place to start, but don't let the "special edition" stuff fool you: the real greatness of this cd is the main album itself.

I didn't really buy this again for the re-mastering because lets face it, it didn't really need to be re-mastered(you can barely make out the sound difference except for it being a little cleaned up) I bought this again for the six bonus tracks which were all b-sides. I also bought it for the packaging. Foo Fighters are a great band.

Got this album when it was first released. A mixture of pop/hard rock. Great album every song rocks, a must have.