REVIEW: Foo Fighters, There is Nothing Left to Lose (RCA)
- Steve Kandell
It's strange to think that playing drums in one of the most influential rock bands of the past twenty years would be little more than a footnote in someone' career, but that's what's starting to happen to Dave Grohl. With the release of the third Foo Fighters album, There is Nothing Left to Lose, he has now equalled the entire output of his former band (not including live and b-side compilations), and Grohl only played on two of those. In 1995, comparisons were inevitable, but enough time has passed that Foo Fighters can finally be judged on its own faults or merits, and the matter of Grohl's previous gig has become oddly irrelevant.
The self-titled debut Foo Fighters album, on which Grohl wrote and played everything, was something of a revelation as Grohl turned the tragedy of Cobain's death and Nirvana's subsequent demise into a personal triumph. Who would have thought that the guy flailing behind the drum set would turn out to be such an accomplished pop songwriter? The follow-up, The Colour and the Shape, delivered on the promise of the debut and established Grohl as a legitimate rock star in his own right, a label that, unlike his two former bandmates, he was more than comfortable wearing.
Recorded at Grohl's home studio in Virginia, what makes the new album work so well is Grohl's infallible ear for hooks. From the grinding opening riff to "Stacked Actors" to the infectious lead single, "Learn to Fly," the eleven tracks are pop songs in the best sense of the word. Without resorting to obvious ballads, the songs are radio-friendly and accessible, benefitting from big, fat, production values courtesy of Seattle veteran Adam Kasper and the band, which features former Sunny Day Real Estate bassist Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins on drums. (Though this is only the third album, Foo Fighters have already seen drummer William Goldsmith and guitarists Pat Smear and Franz Stahl come and go, adding fuel to the rumors that Grohl is something of a despot now that he's calling the shots.)
Despite the personnel turmoil, TINLTL sounds like a record made by a cohesive unit, and there is not a single song here that does not evidence some sort of impressive musicianship. Grohl comes alive in "Generator," featuring plenty of Framptonesque vocoder voice box noodling while "Headwires" recalls the last album's "Everlong" and the languidly paced "Ain't It the Life" nicks the melody from the Beatles' "Across the Universe." Also very much in evidence here is the soft verse/loud chorus formula that was so prevalent in both Nirvana and the other Foo Fighters records, and must be as innately natural to Grohl as breathing. But despite these structural patterns, the songs don't sound tired or repetitive. As commercially successful as the second album was, the songs were hit and miss, while the new album, There is Nothing Left to Lose, is a more consistent affair, sonically more akin to the first record. Simply put, it's that increasingly rare beast: a great commercial rock album, pop without being pandering.
