The Foo Fighters' Greatest Hits

The release of a band’s greatest hits collection is normally a time for devoted fans everywhere to rejoice. But since Dave Grohl has been quoted as saying that the band’s recently released Greatest Hits CD feels like an obituary, it’s not necessarily a good sign. However, if your band needs to have an obituary, this one is a very good one to have.

There are songs on this collection covering every album released by the Foos in their 14-year existence, including a few soundtracks and live recordings too. Notably absent though is the intense ballad “Walking After You,” from their 1997 album “The Colour And The Shape.” Both “DOA” and “Resolve” from 2005’s “In Your Honour” are also notable by their absence

The incendiary guitar chords of “All My Life” open the whole album, setting it off on a coruscating wave of masterful rock. If the first 33 seconds of this song don’t have you rocking out and totally re-devoted to the band then nothing will. This segues into “Best Of You,” the first single off the band’s 2005 album. It’s less dominated by that epic guitar sound, but Grohl ups the growl of his vocals to make up for this.

“Everlong” slows the fierceness of the album down a bit, but 2007’s gold-certified single “The Pretender” makes up for this straight afterwards. The quartet of tracks “Learn To Fly,” “Times Like These,” “Long Road To Ruin,” and “This Is A Call,” all carry the album from strength to strength. There appears to be not a single moment on the whole of this 16-track CD that shouldn’t be played at full volume.

The two new tracks that come with the release are the current single, “Wheels,” which is a mellower tune, along the lines of “Everlong” and “Big Me.” And the full-throttle “Word Forward,” a raging rock song with an ambiguous title that could be taken as “word for word” or “word forward” as Grohl sings about people spreading words that they no longer mean – another testament to the lyrical prowess of the Foos.

Indeed, the only bad thing that this album heralds is the indefinite hiatus of the band following its release. As “Greatest Hits” will show you, the band has been a stalwart of modern rock music for so many years that the rock scene without them almost seems an unthinkable prospect. Hopefully they’ll be back soon to produce more of their beautiful, urgent, furious, groove-heavy hard rock.