The Foo Fighters Split in Two: Revisiting ‘In Your Honor’
This year, we ranked Foo Fighters’ entire studio catalog in our Worst to First series. Today, June 14, we celebrate the anniversary of the release of the Foos’ fifth studio album, In Your Honor. In honor of it, we take a look at Diffuser Senior Editor Tim Karan’s thoughts on the record as featured in Worst to First; you can see our complete ranking for the Foo Fighters’ discs at the bottom of this story.
Although In Your Honor is Foo Fighters' fifth album, it's actually two separate records: The first disc of the double-album is a pretty standard collection of the band's melodic arena anthems while the second disc is a set of acoustic and atmospheric indulgences. On its own, the first disc would likely rank higher on our Worst to First list based on the strength of driving singles like "Best of You" and "No Way Back," but the two separate sides of In Your Honor are irrevocably intertwined.
The second disc is a little more inconsistent as the band seems to force the acoustic concept on themselves with a few ditties that work ("Still," "Miracle") and others ("Cold Day in the Sun" with Taylor Hawkins on lead vocals) that wander a bit. Still, the album (their first after Grohl became a father) features some of the more impressive playing in the Foos' discography and they manage to expand their palette without compromising their core sound.