Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters (Music CD)

Dave Grohl's opening post-Nirvana salvo, FOO FIGHTERS seems merely ordinary only in the wake of the historic, sweetly abrasive sensations that his previous band was famous for. Full of both lilting summer-breeze melodies and search-and-destroy guitar blasts, it helps present the case that Grohl's punk-pop blueprint just might be as forward-minded as Kurt Cobain's was, if slightly less grungy and a bit more blue-collar.
Arriving at its destination by coupling pure '60's guitar-pop with the hyperkinetic pace of hardcore, FOO FIGHTERS takes most of its song-hooks for a joyous high-speed ride.Tracks such as the prankster-ish kiss-off, "This Is A Call", and the meditative-but-bitter "Good Grief" are perfect pop nuggets, with turbo-jet guitars propelling them. There are brief respites from such reckless rolling: the glammy verse-chorus-bridge of "Alone + Easy Target", the near-folky "For All The Cows", the sweetly Squeeze-like "Big Me". Yet, these are only refueling stops for Grohl (who recorded most of the album alone) before he turns the engines back on and blows through alterna-pop's speed limits.
Named after UFO-like apparitions that U.S. fighter pilots claimed to have seen during World War II, FOO FIGHTERS chooses to ignore Grohl's tumultous real-life connections (there are few, if any, kiss-and-tell lyrics) in favour of establishing a separate musical identity. It's as though the songwriter felt there was little of Planet Nirvana worth rehashing, and decided to find anew (if similar) musical satellite to call his own.

1. This Is A Call
2. I'll Stick Around
3. Big Me
4. Alone And Easy Target
5. Good Grief
6. Floaty
7. Weenie Beenie
8. Oh George
9. For All The Cows
10. X Static
11. Watershed
12. Exhausted