By Chris Moore:

RATING: 5 / 5 stars

Once in a band’s career — if they are that lucky — songwriting and performance coalesce on an album in such a way as to inspire both thought and emotion. When that bolt of metaphorical lightning strikes, the result is a collection of songs that breathe like living entities, some tracks crying, some tracks screaming, some tracks shining beautifully. Somehow, through a mixture of careful, intentional strategy and fortunate, indescribable chance, those songs come across as sincere, relatable, and entertaining. Sometimes, they even connect in such a way as to create an interesting statement as a whole.

In the Foo Fighters catalog, The Colour and the Shape is that album.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should make it very clear that I am not a big Foo Fighters fan. Aside from a brief phase of hurriedly listening to all their other albums, I have neither before nor since found their work extraordinary. I do have a great respect for Dave Grohl’s concepts, such as his half-electric, half-acoustic In Your Honor. Until 2007′s Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, however, I was unable to find an album that came close to the heights achieved on their 1997 sophomore effort.

Perhaps the greatest strength of The Colour and the Shape is the balance between pure electric energy and calmer, more soothing tones. This is no middle-of-the-road album; in fact, it has some of the loudest screaming — as well as some of the lightest tones and harmonies — of any album I have ever heard. To be sure, it is one of the very few albums that I have found such extremes on and still found it enjoyable. Too much on the soft side can be boring, and too much on the hard side can be, well, too much.

That is certainly one of Dave Grohl’s fortes — he is shredding his vocal chords in one breath and crooning at the next. Because I tend toward liking the latter more than the former, I always find it a sweet relief to hear some simple double tracking or harmonies following an all-out electric track.

Foo Fighters'

The first time I heard the album, the opening track made me shake my head and double check that I had put the correct CD in the drive. “Doll” is a light, bittersweet song with slightly muted vocals that set the tone for the album. This is a collection of songs about a relationship that is falling apart for a number of reasons — the narrator is willing to admit his own shortcomings (“Doll me up in my bad luck…”), but he isn’t shy about calling the other person on hers.

“Monkey Wrench” and “Hey, Johnny Park!” add up to one of the best one-two punches in rock album history. Each song introduces one killer guitar riff layered upon another, stacked with energetic vocals, and boneheaded metaphors not withstanding, the lyrics are fun. Even though it felt a bit out of my range, I ran my vocal chords ragged back in June 2008 to commit a cover song version of “Hey, Johnny Park!” to video for the Laptop Sessions (CLICK HERE to have a listen!).

These are followed by two more songs that vacillate between power chord-fueled electric rage and Grohl’s calmer, clearer tones. It doesn’t get any more blunt than these lyrics (“This is a blackout; don’t let it go to waste. This is a blackout; I wanna detonate…”), but they work on these tracks.

“Up in Arms” borders on tender (and sad), but certainly isn’t lacking in the backbone department. Then, “My Hero” unfolds a tribute to the “ordinary” hero — fans have speculated that it’s an ode to Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain, but Grohl himself says it’s directed at the average workingman.

I suppose it’s up to you to decide what you believe…

Then comes one of my favorites on the album, a song so unlike the others and yet so wonderfully intertwined thematically. “See You” lends more straightforward acoustic rock sensibilities than you’ll find anywhere else on the album, although they are hinted at in several other tracks.

The rest passes in a blur, starting with the anger and brevity of “Enough Space.” I found this track tough to swallow at first, but my tastes in music have progressed over the years, and I like this song very much now, if for no other reason than it is not what the album as a whole sounds like — Grohl and company seemed to take care to balance such elements.

Although the final four songs are each over four minutes, they pass quickly. “February Stars” boasts a Goo Goo Dolls sound on the outro, and frankly, Grohl does a better job making that sound interesting than John Rzeznik himself. “Everlong” is, of course, a classic. If you listen carefully to the lyrics, it is an emotional, brutal song, and you can almost hear it in the performance — Grohl, Nate Mendel, and Pat Smear must realize what a gem they are recording.

The final two songs work well as a pair, “Walking After You” representing the phase in a breakup where one party clings desperately to the remnants of the relationship even as the other is walking away and “New Way Home” embodying that deep breath and next step for the lonely one left behind. If you’ve been in this situation before and been heartbroken by someone who has lost interest in you, then you’ll appreciate the closing tracks on this album.

In closing, The Colour and the Shape is a standout effort from the Foo Fighters. It is not only the first (and only) album I would recommend to others — with the possible exception of Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace — but it is also one of the great rock albums of all time, in my opinion, an effort that is stronger as a whole than the individual tracks could ever be.

On a more emotional level, it is an album I continually find myself returning to when I’m contemplating relationship problems, and I would highly recommend it as one of the Weekend Review’s picks for albums to keep on hand for those aforementioned sad and/or angry moments!

By Jeff:

Good evening and welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday!  I hope you are well and looking forward to a nice weekend.

Today I bring a song by the Foo Fighters called “Miracle”.  The song is among their more soft and acoustic album cuts of late.  It really shows off their instrumentation skills as well as Dave Grohl’s versatile vocal abilities.

I feel sad saying it, but I do have to let you know what’s going on.  First good news – whether you knew it or not but in a couple of weeks my life is going to change forever.  Sadly, it is this reason that I am going to have to downgrade myself to “contributer” (which is kind of what I am already anyway).  I won’t be able to post every Thursday, and there is no way of telling when Thursday comes around in the future whether I can post or not.  When I can I will, but to be honest, there will be a handful of things that can prevent me from posting.  I don’t want to be specific, but those who know me know what i’m talking about.

I have enjoyed being a regular contributor to the site for nearly 2 years now, and have recorded over 160 videos and amassed 170k in views (and rising at about 300-350 views/day).  I know that this number won’t stop increasing even if my production of videos slows down.

I want to thank everyone that has visited this blog regularly in the past 2 years, and I want to thank Chris and Jim for bringing me along for the ride.  It is amazing to look back at where we were when this blog started, and what our mission was.  I’d say we have done a pretty good job of getting a following, and I hope you bring nothing but support and joy when you read our blog.

With that said, I will see you next week ideally with another video.  If you have things you wish to pass along to me, please send me a private message or comment here.

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome, for the first time in 6 weeks, to Thumpin’ Thursday!  That’s right, after a brief hiatus for an awesome acoustic cover song by Mike, I am back for my regularly scheduled Thursday video.  I’ve got a short but awesome one for you today.

One of my favorite albums in my teenage years was the album “Foo Fighters” by the band of the same name.  At the time, I listened to this album countless times.  I can probably play most of the songs on the album and the lyrics are easy to recall.  The song I have chosen is “Big Me”, which was a single from the album.  You may recall the music video (yeah, like MTV plays music videos anymore – they used too) is a spoof of old Mentos’ commercials.  I’m sure you can find it on Youtube on countless users’ channels.

I usually don’t record short songs, but my next video will be a slightly longer song, and could be a new band as well!  You’ll have to wait and see.

Come back tomorrow for Friday’s edition, where Jim will wow us again.

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Laptop Sessions. It’s Jeff tonight bringing you another new band to the sessions.

Foo Fighters are more known for fast grunge rock, but i’ve always been a fan of Dave Grohl’s writing. The song I chose is from their 2nd album “The Colour and the Shape” called Walking After You. It is a calm song and easy to listen too.

It only took me 2 takes this time, and that beats the previous 2 songs by about 8. I think i’m back into the swing of things finally. Also, I have finally mastered the new camera.

Stay tuned for more sessions tomorrow, as Jim wows us with yet another installment of The Laptop Sessions. Brought to you by Fusco-Moore.com!