Best Rock Albums: Foo Fighters – The Colour & The Shape – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.
From the fact that I’m writing a series blogs about my favorite albums, you can guess that I’m a fan of the concept of an “album” – a collection of songs that are put together in a specific way, that flow from song to song and take you on a journey. The Colour & The Shape by the Foo Fighters, which I consider to be one of the best rock albums of all time, is an example of how overplaying single songs on the radio can detract from a flawless album.
A few months after The Colour & The Shape was released, “My Hero”, which I believe was the third single, after “Monkeywrench” and “Everlong”, went into heavy rotation on 107.9 The End, the still-lamented Cleveland alternative radio station. When I say heavy rotation, understand that I’m referring to the “that song was cool the first 200 times I heard it, but now I want to rip out my car stereo every time it comes on” type of heavy rotation.
I didn’t pick up The Colour & The Shape until a few years after the overplaying (and 107.9 The End’s existence) had ceased, but even now, over a decade later, I still sigh a little bit when “My Hero” starts up, halfway through this forty-six minutes of rock & roll perfection. And that’s a damn shame.
Fortunately, even that can’t overcome how great this record is.
One thing that I took away from The Colour & The Shape, when it comes to my own music, is the way it rises and falls, but never loses its cohesion. I frequently have to remind myself that just because I like loud songs, doesn’t mean that I should be loud all the time. Dave Grohl’s written some of the greatest loud songs of all time (the end of the bridge of Monkey Wrench comes to mind), but the loud tracks are given breathing room by songs like Walking After You, which I would contend is one of the greatest love songs ever written.
That kind of rise and fall is something I feel like I’ve managed to capture, albeit in about half the time, on my latest EP “A Failed Breakup“. And I’m pretty happy about that.
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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.
For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/
