TOP TEN FOO FIGHTERS ALBUMS
We don't talk about music very much on here (we have a few times in the past). But music is very much a passion of ours here at Blood Work and a very important area of our lives. From film scores to classical music, classic rock to J-Pop Metal, there isn't much we don't like. We even dig creepy ethereal new age music on occasion.
The Foo Fighters have long been a favorite band of ours, tied for our all-time favorite band in fact! Our love affair with the music of this band goes back to the late 1990's with the purchase of one of our first few CD's we've ever owned: The Colour And The Shape. Monkey Wrench and My Hero were instant favorites and Everlong may be a top contender for favorite song of all time. Then hearing Learn To Fly not long after was what placed the idea in our heads that this band was truly amazing and here to stay.
It wasn't until we were in college though with the release of the album, In Your Honor, that we became obsessed. From there we sought out every album, every b-side, every cover song, every demo that the Foo Fighters have ever released. And we have actively been keeping up with them ever since! We could serious talk about the Foo Fighters endlessly.
Last year the Foo Fighters debuted their ninth studio album: Concrete And Gold. Add in a few compilation albums, a live album, and an EP and we have more than enough albums for a Top Ten List!
Ranking The Albums
When thinking about a Top Ten List for music albums there needed to be something we could accurately quantify. You can't really quantify levels of enjoyment in a single song, but this is our list so we could do that if we wanted. But we wanted something a little more Concrete and Gold.
As with any album there are songs you instantly gravitate to, favorites right out of the gate. Then there are songs that don't instantly speak to you but over time you come to appreciate and love them. We can honestly say that we love all of the Foo Fighters' music, there isn't a track we go out of our way to skip or flat out dislike. Every song listed below we like, just to be clear (yes, we've listed EVERY song on the albums counted below).
Here comes the tricky part. There are songs we love more than others, the songs that really speak to us. These are the songs we love. Then there are the songs we really like. We've decided to award the songs we love 2 points and the songs we really like 1 point. We've done this with all the albums and used the point totals to determine the ranking of these albums. While Everlong maybe our favorite Foo Fighters song, The Colour And The Shape doesn't necessarily total to our favorite album, at least using this system.
I guess you could say this is a ranking of the strongest Foo Fighters albums in our opinion.
Anyway, here we go!
BONUS TRACKS
#13
Tracks
1: Band On The Run
2: I Feel Free
3: A Life Of Illusion
4: Young Man Blues
5: Bad Reputation
6: Darling Nikki
7: Down In The Park
8: Baker Street
9: Danny Says
10: Hava A Cigar
11: Never Talking To You Again
12: Gas Chamber
13: This Year Will Be Our Year
Comments: Okay, this is a compilation album of covers the band had done over their long career. None of these songs represent original works by the band, but it's a damn fun album anyway! We didn't rank the songs on this compilation because the songs aren't Foo Fighters songs, but it is the Foo Fighters performing everything you're hearing. We just wanted to include it as it is probably one of the rarest and most expensive Foo Fighters albums ever released!
#12
SKIN AND BONES (2006)
Tracks:
1: Razor
2: Over and Out
3: Walking After You
4: Marigold
5: My Hero
6: Next Year
7: Another Round
8: Big Me
9: Cold Day In The Sun
10: Skin And Bones
11: February Stars
12: Times Like These
13: Friend Of A Friend
14: Best Of You
15: Everlong
Comments: This is a live album of the Foo Fighters where all the songs are performed entirely acoustic. We love this album! It is absolutely amazing! We didn't quantify the tracks of this album as the songs all originated on previous albums (which will be quantified later down the list). This album is a must and showcases an incredible live performance by the Foo Fighters.
#11
Tracks
1: All My Life
2: Best Of You
3: Everlong
4: The Pretender
5: My Hero
6: Learn To Fly
7: Times Like These
8: Monkey Wrench
9: Big Me
10: Breakout
11: Long Road To Ruin
12: This Is A Call
13: Skin And Bones = 2 points
14: Wheels = 2 points
15: Word Forward = 1 point
16: Everlong (acoustic)
Comments: Again, just like the last two albums on the list, these songs all originated on prior albums (save for WHEELS and WORD FARWARD, both of which are great songs). If you're wanting the absolute cream of Foo Fighters' crop (prior to 2009 that is) this is the album to get! Every track is fantastic and a hit. Highly recommended if you want to get to know the Foo Fighters. Oh, and the song Skin And Bones was released on an EP prior to this but this is its first legit album release aside from on the Skin And Bones live album. Anyway, it's a great song!
THE TOP TEN
#10
Tracks
1: T-Shirt
2: Run = 2 points
3: Make It Right
4: Sky Is A Neighborhood = 2 points
5: La Dee Da
6: Dirty Water = 1 point
7: Arrows
8: Happy Ever After (Zero Hour)
9: Sunday Rain
10: The Line
11: Concrete And Gold
Point Total = 5
Comments: The latest album from the Foo Fighters and logically the one album of their's that we've listened to the least (obviously). We must admit that this album has been the most difficult to get into. Other than tracks
Run and
Sky Is A Neighborhood nothing else really jumped out at us initially.
Dirty Water starts out a little monotone but escalates into something really good. This album has a decidedly different character than anything they've done before, more akin to Dave Grohl's side project THEM CROOKED VULTURES than any previous Foo Fighters works. We've listened to it over a dozen times or more but as of yet still feel the same as we did upon those first few spins. Maybe we're trying too hard with it. Perhaps we should let it speak to us naturally.
#9
SAINT CECILIA (2015)
Tracks
1: Saint Cecilia = 2 points
2: Sean = 1 point
3: Savior Breath = 1 point
4: Iron Rooster
5: The Neverending Sigh = 1 point
Point Total = 5
Comments: Alright, this is an EP (Extended Play) and not a full album. It's been included here because all songs on the record were new and original Foo Fighters works. And almost everything on here is awesome! We love the title track Saint Cecilia. If you'll notice, this EP has the same point total as Concrete And Gold and we daresay we enjoy this EP more than that album... so far at least. This EP is pretty heavy save for one song, in some cases feeling almost like a Metal album (Probot anybody?). And best of all IT'S FREE! All digital downloads of this EP are completely free of charge!
#8
Tracks
1: Something From Nothing = 2 points
2: The Feast And The Famine = 2 points
3: Congregation = 1 point
4: What Did I Do?/God As My Witness
5: Outside = 1 point
6: In The Clear = 1 point
7: Subterranean
8: I Am A River
Point Total = 7
Comments: The shortest "full length" album the Foo Fighters have ever released, both in total runtime and track number, Sonic Highways represents the band's first ever "concept" album. Traveling to eight different musically historic cities in the country and delving into the styles and inspirations therein. The first three tracks are killer! Tracks 5 & 6 took a little warming up to but later became favorites. Far from my favorite album of theirs but still plenty of good stuff to be found.
For our full review of Sonic Highways check out the link below:
#7
ECHOES, SILENCE, PATIENCE & GRACE (2007)
Tracks
1: The Pretender = 2 points
2: Let It Die = 1 point
3: Erase/Replace
4: Long Road To Ruin = 2 points
5: Come Alive
6: Stranger Things Have Happened
7: Cheer Up, Boys (Your Makeup Is Running) = 1 point
8: Summer's End
9: Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners
10: Statues
11: But, Honestly
12: Home = 1 point
13: Once & For All (bonus track)
14: Seda (bonus track)
Point Total = 7
Comment: The Pretender is one of the greatest songs the Foo Fighters have ever recorded and one of our absolute favorites. Long Road To Ruin is another great. Overall Echoes features some incredibly rocking tracks and then several soft tracks. The album previous to this the band released on two discs, an electric disc and an acoustic disc, to satisfy both kinds of fans. Here they decided to do both styles on one disc making it strangely bipolar. We obviously love the electric songs but then there's a piano ballad (the song Home) that is so incredibly moving. The song Let It Die seems to follow the same progression as a B-Side from their first album, the song How I Miss You. The album as a whole is great but you have to roll with it when you finish a fast song and dive right into a slow one. I don't want to say this album is all over the place but it is the most eclectic of their albums, in my opinion.
#6
Tracks
1: This Is A Call = 2 points
2: I'll Stick Around = 2 points
3: Big Me = 2 points
4: Alone + Easy Target
5: Good Grief
6: Floaty = 1 point
7: Weenie Beenie
8: Oh, George
9: For All The Cows = 1 point
10: X-Static
11: Wattershed
12: Exhausted
13: Winnebago (bonus track)
14: Podunk (bonus track)
15: How I Miss You (bonus track) = 1 point
Point Total = 9
Comment: The record that started it all, the very first Foo Fighters album! This is a very strong album featuring some truly classic songs that either pissed people off (Nirvana die hards who thought Dave Grohl should've quit making music after Kurt Cobain) or made a whole generation of new fans. This album definitely feels the most raw and punk of all their albums. This album also doesn't feature two of the main Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins and Chris Shiflett (the two hadn't joined the band yet!). It still feels like the band is finding its sound but overall the album is consistently good from start to finish.
#5
Tracks
1: All My Life = 2 points
2: Low = 1 point
3: Have It All
4: Times Like These = 2 points
5: Disenchanted Lullaby = 1 point
6: Tired Of You
7: Halo = 1 point
8: Lonely As You
9: Overdrive = 1 point
10: Burn Away
11: Come Back = 1 point
12: Walking A Line (bonus track)
Point Total = 9
Comment: The album that nearly ended the band. One By One signifies both the death and resurrection of the Foo Fighters, but that's a whole other story. As for the album, All My Life and Times Like These are among the best songs the band has ever written. A really strong album from start to finish, One By One has several rocking tracks and keeps a good pace. If you're able to listen to the acoustic version of Disenchanted Lullaby, in our opinion, it is one of the best acoustic songs the band has ever done (released only on the super rare Have It All single. Thank you, Scotty, for giving me your copy!).
#4
THE COLOUR AND THE SHAPE (1997)
Tracks
1: Doll
2: Monkey Wrench = 2 points
3: Hey, Johnny Park!
4: My Poor Brain
5: Wind Up
6: Up In Arms
7: My Hero = 2 points
8: See You
9: Enough Space
10: February Stars = 1 point
11: Everlong = 2 points
12: Walking After You = 1 point
13: New Way Home = 1 point
14: The Colour And The Shape (bonus track) = 1 point
Point Total = 10
Comment: The album that first hooked us and made us fans. When albums are composed in specific ways they can feel like experiences as a whole. You have your opening tracks that pull you in, a series of rises and falls in the middle, either building to an epic crescendo for the end or a soft heartfelt finale. You can't just slap the tracks down in any order, there needs to be thought put into the placement of the songs. A really good compilation isn't just about finding the right songs, but also about placing those songs in a particular order.
The Colour And The Shape, when listened in its entirety, is one helluva experience. It contains some of the greatest tracks the band has ever produced, both rocking and emotionally powerful. Everlong, My Hero, Monkey Wrench, these are the instant classics, but there are so many other great songs lying within. It surprises us that this album isn't on top of the list, it's so good, but so are the following albums.
#3
THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE (1999)
Tracks
1: Stacked Actors = 1 point
2: Breakout = 2 points
3: Learn To Fly = 2 points
4: Gimme Stitches
5: Generator = 2 points
6:Aurora = 1 point
7: Live-In Skin
8: Next Year = 1 point
9: Headwires = 1 point
10: Ain't It The Life = 1 point
11: M.I.A. = 1 point
12: Fraternity (bonus track)
Point Total = 12
Comment: The "relaxed" album, the Foo Fighters as a band were so chill and feeling good when they made this album that you can hear it in the songs. As far as albums go this is one of their most even toned and consistent from start to finish. It's one of those albums that makes you feel good listening to it. Learn To Fly, Breakout, and Generator are among their best. But then some would argue that Aurora and Ain't It The Life and more should be counted among their best too. It's another wonderful album experience from start to finish.
#2
Tracks
Disc 1
1: In Your Honor = 1 point
2: No Way Back = 2 points
3: Best Of You = 2 points
4: DOA = 2 points
5: Hell
6: The Last Song
7: Free Me
8: Resolve = 2 points
9: The Deepest Blues Are Black
10: End Over End
11: The Sign (bonus track) = 2 points
Disc 2
1: Still
2: What If I Do
3: Miracle
4: Another Round
5: Friend Of A Friend
6: Over And Out = 1 point
7: On The Mend = 1 point
8: Virginia Moon
9: Cold Day In The Sun
10: Razor
Point Total = 13
Comment: Yep, a 21 track album (counting the bonus track, of course). The Foo Fighters' longest album to date. We love this album! It has the soft tracks divided from the electric tracks making it easier to get what you want out of it. Track 1 is by definition an intro track and usually we don't count these intro tracks as full fledged songs. But that first track sets the mood so well for the entire disc, we daresay the best intro track to any album we've ever heard. There are so many 2 point songs on here, so powerful, speaking to us specifically (at least we'd like to think so). These songs are truly incredible. And disc 2, for an entirely acoustic session, is wonderful. They strike two completely different tones but if you can appreciate both they total to one fantastic album, each disc comprising their own whole experiences.
With so many tracks you'd think it'd be a shoe-in for 1st place given our point system. Well, it is tied for 1st as it has amassed the same number of points as the next album, but did it on 9 additional tracks. As such we felt the next album deserved #1 as it achieved this total with less tracks.
#1
Tracks
1: Bridge Burning = 2 points
2: Rope = 2 points
3: Dear Rosemary
4: White Limo = 1 point
5: Arlandria = 1 point
6: These Days = 2 points
7: Back And Forth = 1 point
8: A Matter Of Time
9: Miss The Misery = 2 points
10: I Should Have Known
11: Walk = 2 points
12: Better Off (bonus track)
Point Total = 13
