In Your Honour - Foo Fighters > Reviews > In YOUR Honour

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Every song has it's good parts, most are all amazing .
Disadvantages:	Segregation of fast and slow is questionable

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Foo Fighters are one of those bands, where if they release a new album, you just have to buy it because you know that it will be good. The have built up a great reputation over the decade or so they have been around, admittedly at the beginning this was probably a lot to do with Dave Grohl's departure from Nirvana after the tragic circumstances of their end as a group, but as people listened to them they began to realize that they were also an amazing band, with a hugely distinctive style and personality, largely down to the front man, Mr. Grohl himself.
The album previous to this one (One By One) was a very dark one and quite different from some of their previous songs, which were more feel good. This is where the Foos began to establish their darker, more meaningful lyrics, and I feel it is the best they have been, unlike some bands who get steadily worse as they get older.
The idea of them having a *double album* was very novel for me, because I had often wondered why more bands didn't do this. Both disks have 10 tracks, but the first one is the rocky stuff, and the second features the slower tracks, they recently named the two albums 'Slap' and 'Tickle' unofficially on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show, which they seemed to find pretty funny! I think this works really well, because when you think how albums are ordinarily mixed up between these two classifications that most bands now explore into *even Slipknot*. I love the idea of having the two separated because if you are in the mood for some hardcore rockin' you are hardly going to want to listen to a song like 'Razor' for example. The first album is more something which you would want to listen to with a large group of friends, and the other is more something for when your on your own, or with a couple of people.

As usual, they start with an absolutely amazing track, 'In Your Honour', this makes an absolutely brilliant start to the rockier album, Yes, we can hear you screaming loud and clear Dave! I love the added feature where there is a pause in the middle of the song, and then D.G's vocals come back in. With some artists, pauses are just rubbish, but the foo's have the amount of drama in their songs to pull this off flawlessly. Love it, one of the best songs on the album!
What comes next is an absolute plethora of amazing songs that will take your breath away, after you've listened to them a few times, as some of them take a bit of getting used to. The album has much more of a feel good feel, like in the old days of the band with songs like Aurora and Monkey Wrench.
D.O.A is a fantastic song, that I expect will be released as a single at some point in the near future, again, classic foos, with such variation in the tone and a brilliant chorus, in fact I might even say it has the best Chorus on the album, certainly one of their best ever, and this is not to be taken lightly!
The next song I wanted to comment on was 'The Last Song", which incidentally is not actually the last song on the C.D, let along the album! Another great chorus and the pace is not let up at all.
Another song I think must come out as a single at some point is 'Resolve'. It has all the things you know and love about a Foos song, including the great chorus and the passionate lyrics.
The 'Slap' album is absolutely amazing, in fact it could probably sell as many copies on its own, as the whole album will together, not taking anything away from the second CD, but it just proves how great the Foos really are at making music.
Anyway, the 'Tickle' album keeps up the good work with some more brilliant songs, it's very dramatic in parts which can become a bit corny but works well for the most part. As you may have guessed, this CD is made up entirely of acoustic tracks, and includes some amazing lyrics and emotional moments!
The first song 'Still' has a very somber mood to it, but has a simple but effective tune. You almost expect it to burst into loud electricness, but then you remember that this is the slow album, so it won't. That's the only negative about separating the songs like this, you lose the anticipation of knowing that it will get load, you just don't know when!
When I don't mention a song in this review, it's because it would be ridiculously long if I did, so I'm just trying to keep it to the best songs only. Possibly the most amazing song on this CD is 'Miracle'. Very distinctive, definitely single material, you come back to this review in a year's time and I'll bet all my predictions are right!
One song that I felt it was necessary to comment on is 'Friend of A Friend' which reminded me a lot of a Nirvana song, which maybe was intentional by them. Obviously one of the slower ones like 'Something In the Way'. A change in mood for this one, it has something very dark about it. Personally I think it might be about Kurt Cobain 'No-one speaks, when he plays' 'He needs a quiet room with a lock to keep him in' 'He plays an old guitar, with a coin found by the phone'. Well you get the idea, have a listen - it's not very often that you find a possible hidden meaning in a Foo Fighters song.
I thought I should mention the only duet on this album too, because I think it works very well. Dave worked with Katie Melua on Virginia Moon, which works really well, although I think they could have made Katie's voice more predominant than they did, and maybe had some individual parts for her to take full advantage of her voice. Very different, 'Spanish sounding' in fact which you couldn't often say about the foos.
Finally, I think the last song I should mention is 'Razor', just because it is an amazing use of the acoustic guitar, and shows the talent. I think it might be about self-harm, which apparently Dave Grohl did do in the days of Nirvana, please correct me if I'm wrong.

This album was played up so much, as they are such a popular band, and everyone knew that this would have to be something very special to live up to the expectations that seem to grow every time they bring out a new album. I truly do think they have surpassed the expectations this time, even though this is such a cliché. There is not one song that I would say I disliked on this album, and I truly think you will say the same when you listen to it, you do not need to have been a fan of theirs previously, just buy it, because it is just great music for anyone.