Nirvana Mach 2!
Frederick Baptist | Singapore | 11/17/2007
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Who would have thunk it? The tragic suicide of Kurt Cobain was supposed to be the death knell for grunge music let alone Nirvana and yet out of the ashes Dave Grohl the drummer decides to form the Foo Fighters and after a decent first effort goes on to show with this the follow-up that the Foo Fighters is no fluke in what would be an even better album. Grohl shows he learned a lot from Cobain's compositions as the same "formula" of alternating loud and soft dynamics is used on track after track. Grohl as did Cobain knew that to make songs sound interesting you can't just have non-stop loud or soft music going on throughout and that alternating hard with tender spots in songs makes them much more interesting for the human ear to behold and just like Cobain, Grohl has a very good ear for melody. The standout tracks here are "Everlong", "My Hero" and "Monkey Wrench" although the rest of the tracks in no way even closely resemble album filler and have their own merits.
This version of the album though is extremely expensive despite coming in a mini-lp replica sleeve (mlps) format which is poorly assembled with very thin and poor quality cardboard. Two 12-page booklets are included which have the lyrics in both English and Japanese and there is a bonus track included as well: "Dear Lover". The sound quality is very good which is a redeeming factor although it's not remastered. This means that you can get the same cd a lot cheaper albeit without the poor quality mlps design sleeve. Although the content of the album is blameless and represents the Foo Fighters at their best it is hard to justify the very high price you have to pay for this version though. Get this album by all means but just not this extremely expensive version."
One of the best guitar bands of the '90s and beyond
Joker | Michigan | 02/17/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Colour And The Shape (1997) by the Foo Fighters reminds me in some ways of Nirvana's music (guitarist and vocalist Dave Grohl used to be Nirvana's drummer) but instead of it being straight grunge, it's more true rock 'n roll. By 1997 grunge had pretty much faded away, so I view this album as a springboard to the next level or next career phase for former Nirvana member Dave Grohl. Grohl plays guitar and some drums on this album. If you like lots of heavy guitars, then this is your band and this is your album. The '90s featured a lot of guitar bands and Foo Fighters have been one of the best. This album rocks all around. My personal favorite song is Everlong, but this album contains a lot of other good songs, such as My Hero.
After this album was released, the Foo Fighters went on to release many more good albums. Check those out as well.
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