Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits

November 15, 2009

Tascam should expect increased requests to restart production of their 688 Midistudio, because Dave Grohl’s love of the machine is explicitly spelled out within the liner notes of the Foo Fighter’s Greatest Hits. Grohl traces his affair with the dual-cassette studio back to a pre-Foo 1994, and emphasises his continued use of the archaic machine to write demos. With the conception of songs like ‘All My Life’ and ‘Best Of You’ credited to the Tascam 688, and now as frontman of one of the biggest rock bands in the world, those demos must have accrued a price worth the weight of a small diamond. How sweet.

It’s not like uncle Dave needed the cash – more like an outlet. In the 15 years since Grohl created his squadron of Foo Fighters, they’ve released six studio albums and won six coveted Grammy awards; but the band have yet to deliver enough to be considered more than a ‘singles’ band. In many ways the ‘Greatest Hits attests to that. As Grohl notes, “…it is a collection of the songs that have defined our band’s identity to most people over the years.” With another 65 album tracks to choose from, the inclusion of three ‘new’ songs on this compilation will probably serve as an indignant smack to casual fans.

With the running time of these 16 tracks coming in at under an hour (when a CD’s capacity is approximately 80 minutes), there lies a confusing mess around Grohl’s statement. Surely, removing the three bonus songs and utilising the full volume of the CD would provide fans with a more definitive collection. Even the deluxe edition holds the same amount of songs, but includes a bonus DVD. And why could Greatest Hits not be remastered? Compare ‘This Is A Call’ to ‘Learn To Fly’ to ‘The Pretender’ and the variety of production standards across the years is altogether jarring and disjointed. Yes, it is testament to the natural growth of a band and their career, but what listener really cares about that? A respectful equalisation across the board would have made this a far more pleasurable listen.

Nevertheless, it’s difficult to argue with the weight of the Foo Fighters’ hits – greatest or otherwise. Veritable tanks of flying machines, the songs presented here are a simple snapshot of a great band in action. Straddling the pop-rock divide with legs akimbo whilst crunching out power chords on their melodically overdriven guitars, the Foo Fighters have consistently delivered great singles with aplomb for well over a decade. Perhaps in years to come, there will be a collection less reticent to pander to an invisible audience, and maybe some of those original Grohl demos will resurface on a ‘rarities’ CD. But, for now – Greatest Hits adequately fills a stopgap.

(3/5)

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Posted in Music Reviews