Foo Fighters [Vinyl]

Foo Fighters | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (July 4, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002TYJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (129 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,843 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Foo Album!, December 16, 2004

By 

Samhot (Star Land) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foo Fighters (Audio CD)

The Foo Fighters have moved to bigger and better acclaim for their later albums (e.g. _The Colour & The Shape_, et al.), but to me, the albums that followed this one, their debut, while good, were not as compelling, due to the more polished sound that would creep up on those albums. The rawness of this album is what helps give it more of an intimacy, not to mention the fact that, with the exception of one song, the whole album is performed by Dave Grohl: guitars, bass, drums, and vocals -- all Dave. The intimate feel of this album (yeah, an "intimate" album that "rocks," go figure, but it works) is what makes it my absolute favorite in the Foo Fighters catalogue.

As many know, Dave was the drummer of Nirvana, and many would think that Dave trying to form his own band after the split-up of those Seattle juggernauts, would prove to be an embarrassing failure. This was *hardly* the case, as The Foo Fighters are an *excellent* band, and I *personally* don't think about Nirvana's ghost while listening to The Foo Fighers; this alone should tell you something (or at least it would tell you that I disagree with the editorial review on this page.) In other words, The Foo Fighters (to me) stand on their own, and don't remind me much of Nirvana.

Recorded in one week during October of 1994 (just months after Kurt Cobain's death, and Nirvana's demise), but released in July of 1995, this debut album is jam-packed with chewy, sweet-tasting pop confections -- of course shielded with lush, heavy guitars which produce a thick wall-of-sound -- and is hard not to fall in love with. Like another reviewer stated, it's one thing to know Dave has talent as a vocalist, drummer and tunesmith, but to know he almost *literally* single-handedly did the album by himself -- writing the songs, playing *all* of the instruments -- just makes one a bit envious of his talent. Along with pounding, melodic rockers like "This Is A Call," "I'll Stick Around," "Good Grief," not to mention the pleasantly goofy, get-in-the-mosh-pit intensity of "Weenie Beenie," you get tasty Beatle-esque melodicism and craftsmanship in "Big Me," and speaking of The Beatles, you get a beautifully-atmospheric rocker in the form of "Oh, George," which is a tribute to no other than George Harrison (supposedly his favorite Beatle), and superbly-made tracks like "For All The Cows," which amalgamates elegant bluesy 7th chords, fronted by Dave's smooth-as-silk vocals for the soft parts on the verses, before bursting into explosive, heavy choruses. To close out the album, you get the oceanic, atmospheric heaviness of "Exhausted."

This is an *excellent* album; one of the very best "alternative" albums of the 90s; an album where *every* track on the album is as good as gold. I'd put it in my "top 10" of favorites from the 90s "alternative" scene. It's *that* good, and it holds up quite well after nearly a decade since it's release. Highly recommended.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic, classic, classic., July 28, 2005

By 

Luke Rounda "ThreeStarSmash.com" (Lawrence, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foo Fighters (Audio CD)

Dave Grohl wanted the Foo Fighters debut, which, as every punk and their grandmother can attest, was written and performed almost entirely by Grohl -- Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs contributes a guitar track to "X-Static" -- to stand on its own merits. When "Foo Fighters" first debuted, Grohl was quoted as saying, he wanted to do everything possible to distance himself from the success of his former band, to avoid the Foos being viewed as a cash cow Nirvana spin-off as so many other bands from the era were being lambasted.

He probably just didn't expect those merits to win him a Grammy or two and leave him at the virtual top of the modern rock pyramid. And honestly, listening to this record as out-of-context-ly as possible, it's difficult to imagine that the Foo Fighters' sound could mutate into the quintessential "modern rock" sound at all.

"Weenie Beenie" and "Watershed" are acidic bursts of punk charged with theatrical but, befitting the punk style, ultimately simple, guitar flourishes. It's hard to imagine anyone but the most baroquely annoying old farts claiming them to be "immature" and "for teenagers only" -- as the old saying goes, if it's too loud, then you're too old.

However, as with any Nirvana record, "Foo Fighters" possesses an ear for buttery, swirling pop rivaling the best the 1960s had to offer.

Cobain and Grohl always seemed to share a lot of the same ideas about making music. It was the little differences that set them apart. Where Cobain's instantly recognizable, cigarette-choked voice was more akin to biting hot cider, lending a punk edge to pieces like "About a Girl," where he was otherwise belting out a decidedly Beatles-esque melody, Grohl's vocals on the poppier Foos songs are warm, syrupy and squeaky clean in the grand tradition of 60's pop. "Big Me" sounds nearly vintage, and its memorable, self-deprecating video (the Mentos commercial spoof) was a valiant way of saving face and street cred.

Elsewhere lie underground classics like "Exhausted," with its comparably lo-fi My Bloody Valentine-esque lake of guitar feedback paving the way for a classic rock/metal bridge part, and the aptly-named "Floaty" which glides first on a lilting acoustic chord progression and then soars on the same chords distorted. Then there's the amped-up blues of "For All The Cows," the "silly" song Dave always tried to perform for audiences like Howard Stern (who veto'd it in favor of "Everlong"), the George Harrison tribute "Oh, George," the heart-thumping rock 'n' roll of "Good Grief" ... by the time you're done, you've named every song on the album as a standout.

Put simply, every song here does standout as unique from all the others in every way but one -- they all have the Foo Fighters sonic signature stamped proudly on their foreheads.

This is a classic -- the album I stack each and every successive Foos album up against. Each is good in its own way, but none of them can keep up with "Foo Fighters" and its rabid, fast-paced diversity of style.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grudging respect for the Foo, March 24, 2000

By 

"zregime" (People's Republic of Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foo Fighters (Audio CD)

Me: Thirty-eight year old with a fondness for the Beatles, Al Green, and the Sex Pistols.

My son: Fourteen year old who pretends to like my music.

Scene 1: He and I in the car with the radio on.

(Fade in..."This Is A Call" is playing...)

Me: Who is this band?

Son: The Foo Fighters.

Me: Who?

(Long silence)

Me: These guys aren't bad.

Scene 2: He, his friend and I delivering bags of leaves for the annual townhouse community clean-up. The radio is on.

(Fade in..."Big Me" is playing...)

Me: Is this the Foo Fighters?

Son: Yeah.

Me (noticing the bevy of eye-poppingly nice female teenaged units who have eyed our mini-van now that the sliding door has been opened and they can hear the music): Cool.

Scene 3: I'm sprawled on the Lay-Z-Boy in the living room, in a stupor, watching a Saturday Night Live rerun.

(Fade in: The Foo Fighters are rockin' like it's WAY PAST 1999)

Me: Is this off that Foo Fighters album?

Son: Yeah.

Me: What song is this? It rocks!

Son (smiles, knowingly): For All The Cows.