Foo Fighters Greatest Hits Full Album Download
Heidi Asman
"Wheels" is the first single taken from the album, which premiered on radio on September 23, 2009. The single was officially released on September 29, 2009. "Wheels" and "Word Forward", which was written for Dave Grohl's friend, Jimmy, who had recently died,[2] were composed during the Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace tour and recorded specifically for the compilation with producer Butch Vig.[3]
A deluxe edition of the compilation includes a book and a DVD featuring some of the band's music videos and live performances. It also includes a video for "Wheels" directed by Sam Brown, who also worked on "The Pretender".[4]
Dave Grohl has stated his displeasure with the release of a greatest hits album, stating he would have preferred to wait until after the band had retired. The band's label, however, had been wanting to release a compilation album for four years, and exercised a clause in the band's contract that allowed them to do so.[5] Grohl has also mentioned that he felt that the album did not include some of the band's best work and that it was "like a CliffsNotes version of what we've been doing for the last 15 years".[6] In the liner notes of the album, Grohl writes:
These 16 songs are what we're calling our "Greatest Hits." Not to be confused with "Our Best Songs" or "Our Favorite Songs," it is a collection of the songs that have defined our band's identity to most people over the years. The other 65 album tracks... well, some of those might be our greatest songs. "Aurora", "New Way Home", "MIA", "Exhausted", "A320"... depends on whom you ask. Personally, I don't think we've written our greatest songs yet. But that door is always open.[7]
Reception was mostly positive for the compilation. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted in his positive review that the compilation was missing some of the band's successful singles, most notably "DOA" and "I'll Stick Around".[9] Matthew Perpetua of Pitchfork also noted the lack of "I'll Stick Around" on the compilation and suggested that the release would have been stronger with the inclusion of rarities and fan favorites, such as their cover of Prince's "Darling Nikki" or their popular soundtrack contribution "The One".[12] Perpetua also writes "Like nearly all songs recorded specifically for [greatest hits compilations], 'Wheels' and 'Word Forward' are catchy but uninspired, and have no place among the heavy hitters in this collection."[12] As of December 2015, it has sold 1,009,000 copies in the U.S.[15]
We all know the hero myth of Nirvana: Kurt Cobain stormed MTV and radio with punk anthems of genuine rage, and saved us all from the vapidity of hair metal. This story has been repeated so many times that it's rare to find Cobain's music framed in any other context, especially since his suicide served only to make him a rock'n'roll martyr. Foo Fighters have something of a hero myth going on too, but it's a lot less dramatic: Following the death of his comrade, Dave Grohl rocked on as the leader of his own band, and spent the next 15 years making mainstream rock radio, uh, slightly more listenable.
Grohl's task may not be anywhere near as glamorous or as era-defining as that of his former band, but in a way, it's much more difficult and thankless. In the years after Cobain's death, corporate consolidation of rock radio took hold and quickly snuffed out nearly every bit of underground weirdness that made its way into the mainstream after the record industry went through its phase of signing every cult band they could get in the hopes of finding another Nirvana. The playlists got tighter, and if you're reading this site, we probably don't need to tell you just how bad the music on these stations got, and how to this day it only seems to get worse. Grohl and his band may have been grandfathered into the radio format mainly for his connection to Nirvana, but he earned his keep and turned out a reliable string of enjoyable hits.
This probably sounds like faint praise. Indeed, you barely need to be mediocre to outshine the likes of Nickelback, Creed, and Hoobastank, but Foo Fighters are not merely a tolerable band floating along in a sea of crap, or a decent band that somehow remains mainstream against the odds. Foo Fighters are excellent at being mainstream, and, over the course of six albums, Dave Grohl has gone through the unlikely transformation of being known only as the powerhouse drummer of Nirvana to becoming his generation's answer to Tom Petty-- a consistent hit machine pumping out working-class rock.
Part of what makes Foo Fighters thrilling, at least from an indie/alt-rock perspective, is that Grohl manages to smuggle bits of underground sounds into his arena-filling hits. "All My Life", a smash from 2002's One By One, owes a significant debt to the slashing chord progressions of math rock titans Chavez, and "Big Me" is one of the few songs to come out of twee to enjoy major commercial success in the United States. "Everlong", perhaps Grohl's most enduring and beloved composition, bridges the gap between the midwestern post-hardcore emo of Hum and Braid and the more commercial iterations of emo that would follow.
Grohl doesn't appropriate in order to seem hip, and his reference points are not particularly relevant to getting across the appeal of his music-- he simply has good taste and borrows ideas that work. His soaring ballads, like "Learn to Fly" and "Times Like These", are not nearly as cool, but his punk influences shine through in his total commitment to a sentimental tone without allowing for mawkishness or surrendering to cheesiness. Grohl is known to be a funny guy, but there is never a trace of an ironic smirk in the guy's music, and he shines when his earnestness is most apparent, whether it's the gleeful riffing of "Monkey Wrench" and "This Is a Call", or the tortured romantic angst of "The Best of You".
As a compilation, Greatest Hits offers few surprises other than that Grohl somehow resisted the temptation to title this thing The Best of Foo. Though the record conspicuously lacks the band's breakthrough single, "I'll Stick Around", the first 13 tracks make good on the promise of the title and provide a relentless hit parade of modern rock radio staples. Of course, modern-hits compilations are unnecessarily larded with new tracks recorded to promote the set upon release, and this is no exception. Like nearly all songs recorded specifically for these releases, "Wheels" and "Word Forward" are catchy but uninspired, and have no place among the heavy hitters in this collection. "Wheels" is particularly aggravating, sounding something like a half-hearted attempt at a country-rock crossover, which indicates a nervous desperation for continued success that has been absent from Grohl's work to date.
The band surely had better options for non-album tracks. Why not instead include their well-known cover of Prince's "Darling Nikki", their soundtrack hit "The One", or a new recording of a strong B-side like 1996's "How I Miss You" or Grohl's sole Nirvana composition, "Marigold"? At least those songs would've fit into the general conceit of a career survey. These bonus tracks are contractual obligations and a simple fact of the modern record industry, but Foo Fighters' Greatest Hits is a perfect example of an otherwise valuable catalog release marred by this unnecessary meddling in the interest of stimulating first-week sales.
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The cover was the first thing I noticed. The red color was so bright and shiny, the metal of the aircraft looked like real metal and the the rivets were raised and you could run your finger over them and feel each bump.
The package was a gatefold like all good 2LP sets should be. Although not a single picture of the band to expand both sides, it is still a great set of pictures to feel up the space. Let me tell you, having the LP release, these pictures are really large and so crisp and clear. Excellent work was put in to the release.
Now, Dave Grohl was very displeased with this release as he was completely against a greatest hits release. He wanted these to come out after the band called it quits. Well, record companies are in the business to make money and they will do just that. Citing a loophole in the contract, the record company released it anyway.
Overall, I do love the set. I think the packaging is fantastic. The sound quality is crisp and clear on vinyl and I feel like I can hear every note from every instrument. Great quality. The first disc is better than the 2nd, but still great overall. The new songs are okay and all but I am not sure they deserve to be on here which is a drawback. I would still rate it as a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars. That first disc is so good it keeps the score high. I am not planning on on working on my Foo Fighter vinyl collection any time soon as I have too many other bands I am working on right now, but this is a great one to hold me over. I am a casual fan and this is perfect for that casual fan. Grab it if you see it.
Released: 2nd November 2009. Compilation of greatest hits from the American alternative rock band. The album features classic songs such as: 'Everlong', 'Monkey Wrench' and 'All My Life' as well as two new songs 'Wheel' and 'Word Forward'.
It remains uncertain whether Grohl and the band participated in the choosing of songs once it became clear that RCA was going to put out a greatest hits album with or without their consent. Grohl did wind up penning some of the liner notes, in which he took the time hit back against the concept of a greatest hits record and his distaste for the very album he was writing about.
When Kurt Cobain's suicide brought a sudden end to Nirvana in April of 1994, few people imagined that the band's drummer would go on to become one of the most successful rock stars of the next two decades. Most people had never even heard him talk, let alone play guitar and sing. But in the months following Cobain's death Dave Grohl recorded a demo tape under the name Foo Fighters; later, he recruited Germs guitarist Pat Smear and the rhythm section from Sunny Deal Real Estate and began touring clubs. The project took off in a huge way, and now the Foo Fighters pack far larger venues than Nirvana ever played. With Grohl's new documentary, Sound City, now out, we asked our readers to vote on their 10 favorite Foo Fighters songs. Here are the results.
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