It's a shame we have to die my dear, no one's gettin' out of here alive...

Phil Collins.

That's all I get when I think of drummers of great bands that were, for better or worse, able to shed the Spinal Tap-like stigma and forge a career beyond the band's that are not Dave Grohl. In fact, without being blasphemous, I think Grohl's Foo Fighters are just as vital as Nirvana. Instead of reatreading Nirvana's primitive grunge experimentalism, Foo Fighters took the grunge grit and applied it to a melodic hard rock song structure, paving the way for bands like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin. What began as a solo project, with his all-self-performed Foo Fighters album, Grohl has now racked up five platinum albums, overpassing the number of studio albums from his former group. The fifth, In Your Honor, is a big affair, two CDs and 20 songs, with a "hard" disc and a "soft" disc. That's a lot of music, especially now in the days of I-Tunes cherry-picking and padded single discs. Fortunately, the band makes the listen totally worth it.

Strangely, the first disc, comprised of all rocking up-beat songs, begins with the most obtuse song on the album, the title cut. Using a 80s' britrock throwback guitar riff, reminding me almost a little of Yes' "Roundabout" done by the Alarm, it moves into an intricate drum-measure exercise. It almost feels like a bridge to a rock song looking for it's verse and chorus. However it does provide an opening theme musically, getting you ready for the triple-threat shot of the three singles, "No Way Back", "Best Of You", and "DOA". All three are great neo-metal-pop songs, with "No Way Back" and "DOA" aswirl with hooks and the dramatic flair that Grohl delivers that was sooo not gonna happen on a Nirvana record. In fact, "DOA", the highlight of the album, gets downright funky in the instrumentation in the verses without losing any edge. "Best Of You", the flagship single, encapsulates the love-anger that pervades many of the tunes on the album. The Fighters even show their neo-punk roots with the ability to still craft a coherent song, "Hell", that runs under two minutes. What's amazing is that throughout this "hard disc" is the pop sensibility that includes no filler tracks but songs that could all find a home on rock radio. Even a couple of the best tracks, the hard-Beatles-like "Resolve" and the Smithereens'-ish "End Over End" are saved at the end of the album. You do get a little overwhelmed by all the power in these ten tracks, which brings us to...

The "soft disc" starts out with the so-quiet "Still" which actually seems to crib the guitar hook from the Little River Band's "Lady" (trust me, listen to them back to back). The next songs fit the somber, acoustic mood so seemlessly that sometimes they all blend into each other. A couple do stand out, like the pensive "What If I Do" and the dire "Over and Out", and the disc does include the newest single "Miracle", but while everything's up-to-snuff material, it does lull you a little too much in the listen. The one upbeat track on the disc is actually the song sung by drummer Taylor Hawkins, the UK B-Side "Cold Day In The Sun". What possibly would've worked better in interspersing the rockers and acoustics together, which I tried doing once I ripped in on the PC, and you know it works. But hey I'm ot the artist, and you can not only do it yourself, but also you can save the "rock" disc for the car and the "acoustic" disc for a dinner at home . Either way, classy stuff, and along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium, a welcome return to thoughtful rock double rock albums with substance throughout.

But Phil, please no double albums as yet.

Grade: B+
Best Cuts: "DOA", "Resolve", "End Over End", "No Way Back"
Weakest Links: none

In Your Honor made #2 on the Pop Albums Chart.
"The Best Of You" hit #18 Pop, #1 Modern Rock, #1 Rock, #38 Adult top40, and #4 in the UK.
"DOA" hit #68 Pop, #1 Modern Rock, #5 Rock, and #25 in the UK.
"No Way Back" made #2 Modern Rock, #6 Rock, and #64 in the UK.
"Resolve" made #32 in the UK.
"Miracle" hit #39 Adult Top40.
"Cold Day In The Sun" made #64 as a double A-side single with "No Way Back".

You can pick up In Your Honor in places like here and here.

And here is the video for the track "DOA"