This album sees the Foos really diversifying themselves and stepping away from both the lo-fi stylings of their s/t album and the almost stadium-rock grandness of "colour and the shape". the schizophrenia in this album is shown in the opening one-two of "stacked actors" (a lot more rock than their usual stuff, with a bassy, almost Black Sabbath esque sound leading into surf rock verses?! bizarrely it works!) and "breakout" (a typical Foos three minute pop-rock song with some manic, "monkey wrench"-esque screaming at the end), both great songs and setting the tone to come.
Throughout the album, styles are chewed up and spat back out with the politeness of a Tourettes-suffering bus driver, and surprisingly it works to make a very cohesive album. Of course the strangest, and inevitably weakest, moments occur when the Foos stray too far from their original leanings (like the funky, almost retro bounciness of 'gimme stitches' and new-wave stylings of 'headwires', even though they're still damn good songs), but the best moments come when they emphasise parts of the band that have always been around and bring them to the forefront - namingly their emotional moments ("aurora") and their grand, larger than life rawwwk ("live in skin"). Of the two, "aurora" is probably the best track on the album, with a beautifully fragile melody and gorgeous bassline taking the song to an amazing buildup at the end. In fact, it sounds strangely similair to bassist Nate Mendal's former band, the indie rock legends Sunny Day Real Estate. "live in skin" would fit excellently on "colour and the shape" with an excellent riff and huge chorus. To be frank, every other song on this album is wicked.
But of course, there are bad moments, and i must confess that i don't really care for the acoustic-y, boring "next year" and "ain't it the life". But the good far, far outweighs the bad, and "ain't it the life" is followed by the perfect ending of the brooding "M.I.A", so i can't really complain can i? The album was recorded in Dave Grohl's house but you'd never know it of course, the production is brilliant, rough and glossy at the same time. I wish i had a studio like this in my house!
A word must also go out to the amazing packaging - i got the posh USA ltd version with a totally gorgeous fold out digipak and an FF logo temporary tattoo! This is one of those albums that, like "dead reckoning" by Small Brown Bike or "we speak in code" by True North, looks just how it sounds, if that makes any sense. Lots of clean white, with a good use of space and damaged photos. i'm a bit of a packaging and aesthetics person, and sometimes find myself buying records just cos they look nice, so this part of this record wraps it up nicely.
This maybe isn't the best place to start (that honour belongs to the classic "colour and the shape") for new Foos fans, but it's infinitely better than the first album and should keep all their current fans happy.
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Advantages: A number of excellent tracks are contained within this album. Disadvantages: There are some supremely average rock tracks that also feature here.
Advantages: Very good album with wide appeal Disadvantages: Probably not as good as 'The Colour...', poppier, could be longer, not sure about 'lastability'
Advantages: Great Very Pop friendly and fills the purpose it appears to have been made for Disadvantages: Not what You would expect if you're an older Foo's fan
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Jun 13th, 2001
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