One by One | ||||
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Studio album by Foo Fighters | ||||
Released | October 22, 2002 | |||
Recorded | April–May 2002 at Studio 606 in Alexandria, Virginia | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, post-grunge[1] | |||
Length | 55:11 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer | Foo Fighters, Adam Kasper, Nick Raskulinecz | |||
Foo Fighters chronology | ||||
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Singles from One by One | ||||
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One by One is the fourth studio album by alternative rock band Foo Fighters, released on October 22, 2002 by RCA. The album is the first to feature guitarist Chris Shiflett. Production on the album was troubled, with initial recording sessions considered unsatisfying and raising tensions between the band members. They eventually decided to redo the album from scratch during a two week period at band leader Dave Grohl's home studio in Alexandria, Virginia. The songs on the album, which include the successful singles "All My Life" and "Times Like These", have been noted for their introspective lyrics and a heavier and more aggressive sound, which Grohl said was intended to translate the energy of the Foo Fighters' live performances into a recording.
The album was a commercial success, topping the charts in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom and sold over one million copies in the United States. One by One was positively received by critics, winning a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2004 and praised for its sound and production. However, some considered the work inferior to the band's previous albums, and the musicians themselves eventually grew distasteful of the record as a whole.
Contents |
Following the extended tour promoting There Is Nothing Left to Lose, which kept the band mostly on the road between 1999 and 2001, and a drug overdose by drummer Taylor Hawkins in August 2001, the band joined together in October 2001 to work on their next album.[2] By December 2001, they were recording at singer Dave Grohl's own Studio 606 in Alexandria, Virginia, and later moved to Los Angeles, where they worked in both Conway Studios and The Hook Studios.[3][4][5][6] Along with the producer for the previous album There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Adam Kasper,[6] the band was also working with first-time producer Nick Raskulinecz, who met the band when he engineered "A320" for Godzilla: The Album. Raskulinecz had just left his job at Sound City Studios, and declared that the invitation to make his debut as a record producer for the Foo Fighters "sounded like heaven", feeling that he was chosen because Grohl "liked my energy and enthusiasm" and "could tell I was a fan, not one of these 'professional producers' who didn't really love music anymore", and speculated that Grohl "was having a hard time finding a guy who would commit to sitting in his basement for four months.".[7]
The recording sessions were considered unsatisfying, with Grohl considering that the playing was "too fucking clinical" and "lost focus on the best part of the band — raw energy" by becoming too focused on production -[4] "we sucked a lot of the life out of the songs. It wasn't inspired. I'd listen back to rough mixes and think this sounds like another band playing our songs".[9] Tensions were also escalating, with Hawkins saying "we weren't getting on well and I didn't feel we were much of a band",[10] bassist Nate Mendel declaring he kept on being in a "shitty attitude" through the sessions for disagreements with Grohl, and guitarist Chris Shiflett saying he would at times spend whole days in the studio without playing anything.[11] A total of 29 songs were recorded overall, which included "The One" - featured in the film Orange County and released as a standalone single -[12][13] and ten finished tracks that were considered for the upcoming album.[3] The sessions took four months of work at the cost of over $500,000.[4][14][15] The resulting tracks were considered disappointing, with Hawkins describing them as "million-dollar demos",[14] and Grohl considering the songs "far too clean, too tame and boring".[16] According to Grohl, the band itself only liked five of those songs, "the other five we thought were okay, but we were basically just making songs that we thought people would want to hear on an album"[17] and he declared to be afraid to go out promoting "an album that I wasn't 100 per cent convinced of."[9] After manager John Silva listened to the recordings, he also expressed dissatisfaction, saying that "we can release it now, but I don't know if anyone would want to buy it",[11] and adding that "I don't think that's what you guys are all about, and it's not what you guys should do."[17]
The band decided to take a break and do separate projects: Grohl joined the Queens of the Stone Age for both live shows and recording the album Songs for the Deaf,[15] Shiflett started the Viva Death and Jackson projects with his brother Scott[16][18] and rejoined his former band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Hawkins played with Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery, and Mendel both played with Juno and reunited with his former bandmate William Goldsmith in The Fire Theft.[2] Grohl said while he enjoyed playing with the QOTSA enough to consider disbanding the Foo Fighters,[11] "within three months, I started missing the guys and the music".[9] On April 2002, the bandmembers reunited for rehearsals for the Foo Fighters' scheduled concert at the 2002 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. During the rehearsals, the tensions broke out in huge fights, specially between Grohl and Hawkins. The musicians decided to at least perform in Coachella before deciding whether to continue playing together or end the band. After enjoying their performance, the band decided to remain united and do again what they had recorded.[11]
"We had already spent three months and a million dollars on something that we threw away. The difference between "All My Life" and "All My Life" was that this one cost a million dollars and sounded like crap, [while] this one we did in my basement for half an hour and became the biggest fucking song the band ever had."
As Grohl finished recording Songs for the Deaf , he took two weeks before QOTSA would enter a tour to work on the Foo Fighters record.[19] First, Grohl visited Hawkins' home studio in Topanga, California to show new compositions, such as "Times Like These" and "Low", and rework the songs they had already done.[17][10] Then Grohl and Hawkins went to Virginia to redo the drum, vocal and guitar tracks across a twelve day period.[17] Afterwards, Mendel and Shiflett were called to record their parts,[2] which were mostly done with the supervision of Raskulinecz, as Grohl had to go back to QOTSA.[4] The only remaining track for the original sessions was "Tired of You", which features a guest appearance by Queen guitarist Brian May.[4][20]
On the title One by One - taken from a lyric on "All My Life", and to which the spelling 1 X 1 was also considered — Grohl declared it was chosen because "it just seemed to make sense somehow", and elaborated by considering it a reference to relationships - "one person by another person, or one after another" - and the frequent appearance of the word "one" in the lyrics, with varied meanings: "It's kind of weird because it can represent loneliness — 'one is the loneliest number' — or it can represent continuation."[21][22]
One by One was considered the band's heaviest up to that point, with Grohl describing the sound of it as "different than anything we've ever done in that it is darker and more aggressive". Grohl said the album was "all about the energy of playing live",[23] He added that the "frenetic, just more energetic" performances were helped by the re-recordings being done in a short period of time, and said that while the previous albums had songs which were never played live, the track listing on One by One was compared to a set list where "every one of the songs I would play every night."[21] As the results of the early recording sessions had manager John Silva expressing that "Half of it's really good because it sounds like nothing you've ever done before, and half of it just sounds like singles to me"[24] and ending with a suggestion for Grohl to "stop trying to write hit singles and go back to being weird",[3] the band decided to be more experimental in addition to writing "big songs" meant to be played in full arenas.[24] The variety included moody songs such as "Have It All" and "Tired of You", and the alternating dynamics of "Halo", which drew inspiration from Tom Petty, Cheap Trick and Guided by Voices.[4] The sonority tried to blend dissonance and melody, with Grohl declaring that "We figured we're gonna get mean, we're gonna get ugly. And then I end up putting this four-part harmony on it, and all of sudden it's beautiful. Like wait a second, it was supposed to be gross, and now it's gorgeous."[24]
While in previous records Grohl had "held back lyrically because you don't want to tell anyone your secrets", in One by One he found himself writing lyrics that matched "emotional level we were hinting with the music",[4] describing the One by One tracklisting as "11 tortured love songs".[3] Examples included "Burn Away", partially inspired by Grohl's girlfriend Jordyn Blum, to which he is now married,[4] and "Times Like These" where Grohl lamented the absence of Foo Fighters and pondered about its future.[11][4] The album closer, "Come Back", which was a combination of two different songs clocking over 7 minutes, was described by Grohl as "our epic opus", with lyrics that were "revealing all these dark, shitty sides of myself". Grohl said that despite the angry content of some lyrics, he drew no inspiration from Courtney Love, with whom he had arguments and lawsuits regarding Nirvana - on which Grohl and Love's late husband Kurt Cobain played — to which he was surprised as references to Love usually "snuck in" in songs such as "I'll Stick Around" and "Stacked Actors".[4]
The album artwork was done by Raymond Pettibon, known for his work with punk bands such as Black Flag and The Minutemen. Grohl was introduced to Pettibon by ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt and after visiting his house decided to hire him for the artwork because "we had to somehow pay tribute to Pettibon as a hero, because his stuff, those images just stuck with me my whole life."[25] Grohl came up with the heart theme used in the booklet and related singles.[26] There are two versions of this album released, one with a white cover and another with a black cover.[27][28] The first 575000 units comprised a limited edition with a bonus DVD,[29] featuring a concert recorded in Dublin,[30] DVD-ROM content, the video for "All My Life", and two songs from the original recording sessions, "The One" and the outtake "Walking a Line" - featuring Grohl's former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic in backing vocals.[5][20][31] A limited international edition features seven bonus tracks: "Walking a Line", three live songs, and three covers, The Psychedelic Furs' "Sister Europe", the Ramones' "Danny Says" - with Shiflett on the vocals — and Joe Walsh's "Life of Illusion" - sung by Hawkins.[32][20][28] A Norwegian version had an extra album with tracks recorded at the Oslo Spektrum on December 4, 2003.[33]One by One was also issued as a double vinyl LP record,[34] and a DVD-Audio with 5.1 surround sound mixes.[35][36]
Professional ratings | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 75[37] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
The Austin Chronicle | [38] |
The A.V. Club | Average[39] |
BBC Online | Average[40] |
Billboard | Favorable[41] |
Robert Christgau | (B-)[42] |
Entertainment Weekly | Favorable[43] |
Pitchfork Media | [44] |
PopMatters | Average[45] |
Rolling Stone | [46] |
One by One was released on October 22, 2002. That same day the band started off the One By One Tour with a concert at the Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre.[47] The album debuted at third place on the Billboard 200, with 122,000 copies sold in one week,[48] and spent 50 overall weeks on the chart.[49] By 2011, One by One had sold 1,333 million units in North America,[50] being certified Platinum by the RIAA.[51] The international release was also successful, with a number one in the United Kingdom,[52] Ireland,[53] and Australia.[54] It also outsold predecessor There Is Nothing Left to Lose in Australia, Japan and various Asian markets.[55]
Initial critical response to One by One was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 75, based on 19 reviews.[37] Reviewer Jon Pareles of Rolling Stone described the album's sound as "rock that draws power from its determination to struggle onward", with songs driven by "potent guitar riffs" and whose introspective themes are "stronger and broader than autobiography".[46] NME's April Long felt that "every note is ten times more focused and urgent", considering that "even the quieter moments bristle" and saying that the album "refutes every critic who attributed the Foos' success to Grohl's iconic rock veteran status".[56] Michael Paoletta of Billboard considered the album "among the band's best work" and that the themes gave the record "an emotional intimacy that makes it all more satisfying".[41] Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker rated the album A-, caling it full of "unexpected exhilaration" and saying that "sometimes the whisper-to-a-yell song construction gets repetitive, but the near-constant exploration of various relationships -- those between lovers, or friends, or Foos-to-their-fans -- never does."[43] The Austin Chronicle reviewer praised the heavy sound of the album, saying it "got serious about rocking out" and drifted from the light-hearted tone of songs such as "Big Me" while "retaining their melodic instincts".[38]
However, many reviewers felt that the album was not up to the standards of the Foo Fighters's previous work. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that One by One was "the most accomplished album Foo Fighters have made, which isn't necessarily the same as the best", considering that while well-produced and played, the songwriting had "slipped slightly" compared to the previous albums, declaring that "it's still sturdy and melodic, yet not as immediate or memorable."[1] Writing for PopMatters, Margaret Schwartz considered the album "ultimately unsatisfying" despite being "tight and competent in both musical and production value, lyrically intelligent, and rhythmically driving", particularly for not drifting much from the band's typical style - "the three-dimensional Color and the Shape has given way to the binary One By One".[45] Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club also compared it to The Colour and the Shape, saying that said record "set the bar pretty high, and Foo Fighters has been crouching modestly underneath it ever since" and that One by One ended up being "mostly middling, sticking to slick, pounding, functional rock that doesn't dig much deeper than the usual spleen-venting and loud-quiet brooding-to-bluster formula".[39] BBC's Nick Reynolds found the record inconsistent, praising the first four tracks but saying the following songs "can't maintain this quality", and concluding that "One By One is good, but it leaves you feeling just a little frustrated".[40] Eric Carr of Pitchfork Media was much critical of the album, saying it was overproduced to the point that "the last rough edge of the Foo Fighters' sound has been buffed away, leaving most of these songs with a palpable emptiness", and calling the songs "weightless, antiseptic cuts" that despite "skillful composition" came "without any real strength or character".[44]
In 2004, One by One won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album,[57] while one year earlier "All My Life" was chosen as Best Hard Rock Performance.[58] While the band had a positive opinion about the record upon release, with Grohl saying the songs were "the best we've ever written",[30] he and the rest of Foo Fighters eventually grew distasteful about the results. Grohl has stated that "I was kinda pissed at myself for the last record... four of the songs were good, and the other seven I never played again in my life. We rushed into it, and we rushed out of it."[59] Hawkins declared that "if you think about things too much, they kinda get sterile, as we found out there", and Shiflett said in One by One "there are great songs there, and then there are... parts of great songs".[60]
All songs written and composed by Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett, except where noted[6][32].
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "All My Life" | 4:23 |
2. | "Low" | 4:28 |
3. | "Have It All" | 4:58 |
4. | "Times Like These" | 4:26 |
5. | "Disenchanted Lullaby" | 4:33 |
6. | "Tired of You" | 5:12 |
7. | "Halo" | 5:06 |
8. | "Lonely as You" | 4:37 |
9. | "Overdrive" | 4:30 |
10. | "Burn Away" | 4:59 |
11. | "Come Back" | 7:49 |
Total length:
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55:11 |
Limited edition | |||||||||
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No. | Title | Length | |||||||
12. | "Walking a Line" | 3:56 | |||||||
13. | "Sister Europe" (The Psychedelic Furs cover) | 5:10 | |||||||
14. | "Danny Says" (Ramones cover) | 2:58 | |||||||
15. | "Life of Illusion" (Joe Walsh cover) | 3:40 | |||||||
16. | "For All the Cows" (live in Amsterdam) | 3:31 | |||||||
17. | "Monkey Wrench" (live in Melbourne) | 4:01 | |||||||
18. | "Next Year" (live) (Chinese/U.K. version only) | 4:12 |
Limited bonus disc (Norway) | |||||||||
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No. | Title | Length | |||||||
1. | "Snoof" (live) | 4:24 | |||||||
2. | "Times Like These" (live) | 4:35 | |||||||
3. | "Low" (live) | 4:35 | |||||||
4. | "Aurora" (live) | 9:08 | |||||||
5. | "Monkey Wrench" (live) | 8:21 |
The album was also originally released with a limited edition bonus DVD which contained:[31]
Chart positions
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Certifications
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Preceded by ELV1S by Elvis Presley |
Australian number one album October 28, 2002–November 4, 2002 |
Succeeded by Nirvana by Nirvana |
Preceded by From Now On by Will Young |
UK number one album November 2, 2002–November 8, 2002 |
Succeeded by A New Day at Midnight by David Gray |
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