Foos Noos

A long winded appetite whetter!










Ok, so you’ve probably heard the new Foo Fighters single ‘Best of you,’ by now. Yep, its good hard mighty rawwk from Dave Grohl and the boys. But we’ve heard it before have we not?

Thus, what we really are waiting for is side two of the new Foos album ‘In Your Honor.’ (Dammit why can’t they write ‘honour’?) This, in case you were unaware, is the mellow, acoustic side. It is the antithesis of everything the world has come to expect from the hard rocking band, and if early reviews are correct, it’s gonna prove to be very interesting indeed…

As Lloyd Grossman would say on Through the Keyhole, ‘lets look at the evidence.’ Firstly, there’s the surprising inclusion of Norah Jones. That song could go either way… beautiful, or dare I say it, cheesy. I predict it will be the first option though because have you ever heard Dave Grohl write anything cheesy?

Secondly, the album features a 15 year old song called ‘Friend of a Friend,’ which Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain. Now, this song was originally included on a tape of Dave Grohl demos entitled ‘Pocketwatch,’ which was released in 1990. For anyone who has downloaded the track from that album, they will know how haunting and strange it is, with Grohl solo on an acoustic guitar playing just two chords. Bear in mind that haunting + strange = good.
The lonely, sad emotion of the song is made even more so with the lyrics (remember, they are about Cobain)

he’s never been in love,
but he knows just what love is.
He says ‘nevermind’
And no-one speaks.

He thinks he drinks too much
Cos when he tells his two best friends
‘I think I drink too much,’
no-one speaks

Apparently, Grohl has re-recorded the song for the new album, and one can only hope that this does not take away its sad beauty.

It is this album that might prove to be the biggest insight into Grohls’ psyche that we have ever had. Referring to the song ‘Still,’ Grohl is quoted on RollingStone.com as saying ‘I couldn't believe that our band is capable of making something so beautiful." It's one of the most personal songs Grohl has ever written, about a kid in Virginia who committed suicide on train tracks. "After the ambulances split, we found pieces of his skull and we played with his bones," says Grohl, who was ten at the time. "The acoustic album runs deep."

Finally, for anyone who witnessed the Foo Fighters on Later with Jools Holland recently, they would have seen Grohl perform solo the song ‘Razor.’ This, it would seem, is the little sister of ‘Aurora,’ with Grohl playing a continuous floaty riff throughout. It really does bode well for the rest of the album, which is expected to be the perfect soundtrack to summer 2005. Well it will be mine at least! Here’s the tracklisting to the mellow side of ‘In Your Honor.’

’Still’
’What If I Do’
’Miracle’
’Another Round’
’Friend Of A Friend’
’Over ‘N Out’
’On The Mend’
’Virginia Moon’
‘Cold Day In The Sun’
’Razor’