One by One (Foo Fighters album)

Production

Frontman Dave Grohl began working on new material for the band's next album as early as 2000 during the band's tour promoting There Is Nothing Left to Lose. Following the tour, the band started to compose songs for their next album in early 2001. After demo work in drummer Taylor Hawkins' home studio in Topanga, the band used the second quarter of 2001 to perform in European festivals. In August, after performing in Chelmsford's V Festival, Hawkins suffered a heroin overdose that left him in a coma for two weeks. After taking time off to recover, during which Grohl accepted an offer to play drums for the Queens of the Stone Age on their album Songs for the Deaf, the band got together in October 2001 to continue composition. working with both the producer for their previous album, Adam Kasper, and recording engineer Nick Raskulinecz,

The progress of the Virginia sessions started to become stale, 29 songs were recorded, including "The One"—featured in the film Orange County and released as a standalone single— and ten finished tracks that were considered for the upcoming album. The sessions took four months and were at the cost of over US$1,000,000.

The recording sessions were considered unsatisfying; Hawkins said that "nobody had their studio chops together", Tensions were escalating, as arguments broke out at the studio, and Hawkins said he "didn't feel we were much of a band" as there was much animosity among the bandmembers. Bassist Nate Mendel said that he was in a bad attitude during the sessions due to disagreements with Grohl, and guitarist Chris Shiflett added that he felt he would at times spend whole days in the studio without playing anything.

The band also showed disappointment with the ten songs that emerged from the sessions, as Hawkins described the finished tracks as "million-dollar demos", and Grohl considered the recordings "far too clean, too tame and boring". The band only liked five of the ten songs, and thought that listeners would enjoy the other five anyway. Grohl was afraid to promote the album because of his lack of confidence in it. After manager John Silva listened to the recordings, he agreed that it was not a work that represented the band well, and that "we can release it now, but I don't know if anyone would want to buy it".

In April 2002, the band discarded the recordings and took a break. Shiflett started the Viva Death and Jackson projects with his brother Scott and rejoined his former band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Hawkins played with Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery, and Mendel both played with Juno and reunited with his former bandmate William Goldsmith in the Fire Theft.

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Grohl decided to take a two-week period before Queens of the Stone Age went on tour to work on the Foo Fighters record, and after consulting Raskulinecz decided to promote him to producer. Then Grohl and Hawkins went to Virginia to redo the drum, vocal and guitar tracks across a twelve-day period, Two of the demos would leak online in 2012.

The title One by One—taken from a lyric on "All My Life", and for which the spelling 1 X 1 was also considered—was chosen according to Grohl because "it somehow made sense", and even worked as a reference to relationships—"one person by another person, or one after another". The singer added that the word one is frequently used in the album's lyrics, meaning either loneliness or continuation.

Composition

Upon its release, One by One was considered the band's heaviest album, as Grohl described the sound as a darker and more aggressive approach as opposed to the band's usual work. and suggesting that Grohl "stop trying to write hit singles and go back to being weird", the band decided to be more experimental in addition to writing music meant to be played in full arenas. The variety included moody songs such as "Have It All" and "Tired of You", the seven-minute "epic opus" album closer "Come Back", and the alternating dynamics of "Halo", which drew inspiration from Tom Petty, Cheap Trick and Guided by Voices. Grohl added that the sonority tried to blend dissonance and melody: "We figured we're gonna get mean, we're gonna get ugly. And then I end up putting this four-part harmony on it, and all of sudden it's beautiful. Like 'wait a second, it was supposed to be gross, and now it's gorgeous'."

While in previous records Grohl tried to not get introspective in his lyrics, for One by One he found himself writing lyrics that matched the "emotional level we were hinting with the music", such as "Come Back", with words "revealing all these dark, shitty sides of myself". The lyrics to a song were usually done after finishing the vocal track for another. A major inspiration was Grohl's new girlfriend Jordyn Blum, as well as the troubled times with the band, demonstrated in "Times Like These", which laments the absence of the Foo Fighters and ponders about their future.

Packaging and formats

The album artwork was done by Raymond Pettibon, who has worked with punk bands such as Black Flag and Minutemen. Grohl was introduced to Pettibon by ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt and, after visiting his house, decided to hire him for the artwork because "we had to somehow pay tribute to Pettibon as a hero, because his stuff, those images just stuck with me my whole life." Grohl came up with the heart theme used in the booklet and related singles. The album was issued with two different covers, black and white.

A limited international edition features seven bonus tracks: the outtake "Walking a Line", three live songs, and three covers, The Psychedelic Furs' "Sister Europe", the Ramones' "Danny Says"—with Shiflett on the vocals—and Joe Walsh's "Life of Illusion"—sung by Hawkins. A Norwegian version had an extra album with tracks recorded at the Oslo Spektrum on December 4, 2002. One by One was also issued as a double vinyl LP record, and a DVD-Audio with 5.1 surround sound mixes.

An Enhanced CD edition was released with weblinks to their official website and where to download free music.

Critical reception

One by One received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, a website that assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 75, based on 19 reviews. Reviewer Jon Pareles of Rolling Stone praised the "potent guitar riffs" and the introspective themes, which he called "stronger and broader than autobiography". NMEs April Long felt that "even the quieter moments bristle" and considered the album an affirmation of the band's quality. Michael Paoletta of Billboard considered the album "among the band's best work" and that the themes gave the record "an emotional intimacy that makes it all more satisfying". Entertainment Weeklys Ken Tucker rated the album A−, calling it full of "unexpected exhilaration" and liking the "exploration of various relationships" on the lyrics.

However, many reviewers felt that the album was not up to the standards of the Foo Fighters' previous work. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that although One by One was well-produced and played, it was too polished to "hit at a gut-level" and that the songs were "not as immediate or memorable" as the band's earlier compositions. Writing for PopMatters, Margaret Schwartz considered the album "ultimately unsatisfying" despite its quality writing and production, particularly for not drifting much from the band's typical style. Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club described One by One as "mostly middling, sticking to slick, pounding, functional rock that doesn't dig much deeper than the usual spleen-venting and loud-quiet brooding-to-bluster formula". BBC's Nick Reynolds found the record inconsistent, praising the first four tracks but saying the following songs did not maintain the same quality, and concluding that although One By One is a good record, it may frustrate a listener. Eric Carr of Pitchfork was very critical of the album, saying it was overproduced and the songs are "weightless, antiseptic cuts" with "skillful composition" but "lacking strength and character".

In 2004, One by One won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, while one year earlier at the 45th Grammy Awards "All My Life" was chosen as Best Hard Rock Performance. While the band had a positive opinion about the record following release, as Grohl said the songs were "the best we've ever written", he and the rest of the Foo Fighters eventually grew distasteful about the results. Grohl stated that he was frustrated at himself for rushing on the album: "four of the songs were good, and the other seven I've never played again in my life." Hawkins said that "if you think about things too much, they kinda get sterile, as we found out there", and Shiflett declared that "there are great songs [in One by One], and then there are... parts of great songs".

Awards

Grammy Awards

Commercial performance

One by One was released on October 22, 2002. That same day, the band began the One by One Tour with a concert at the Los Angeles Wiltern Theatre. The lead single "All My Life" had been released on September 7, and the band issued three more songs as singles in 2003: "Times Like These", "Low", and "Have It All". BMG became partners with telecom firm O2 and music provider Musiwave to promote the album in Europe with a special campaign focused on cellphones.

The album debuted at third place on the Billboard 200, with 122,000 copies sold in its first week, and spent 50 overall weeks on the chart. By 2011, One by One had sold 1.333 million units in North America, being certified Platinum by the RIAA. The international release was also successful, with RCA announcing One by One had surpassed two million copies worldwide in January 2003.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8A0EAAAAMBAJ

Track listing

Special edition DVD

The album was also originally released with a limited edition bonus DVD which contains:

• "All My Life" video / 5.1 audio / stereo audio versions
• "Walking a Line" video / 5.1 audio / stereo audio versions
• "The One" 5.1 audio / stereo audio versions
• Extras — making of video + other clips
• DVD-ROM — screensavers, buddy icons & weblinks
• Photo gallery

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes.

Foo Fighters

• Dave Grohl – vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, production
• Nate Mendel – bass, production
• Taylor Hawkins – drums, production
• Chris Shiflett – lead and rhythm guitar, production

Additional musicians

• Brian May – guitar on "Tired of You"
• Krist Novoselic – backing vocals on "Walking a Line"
• Gregg Bissonette – drums on "Danny Says"

Production

• Nick Raskulinecz – producer and engineer (all except "Tired of You")
• Adam Kasper – producer and engineer on "Tired of You"
• Jim Scott – mixing
• A.J. Lara – mastering
• Bob Ludwig – mastering, mixing
• Bob Michaels – mastering
• Melinda Pepler – production coordinator
• A.J. Lara – digital editing
• Eddie Escalante – authoring
• Kehni Davis – quality control
• Rupesh Pattni – graphic design
• Anton Corbijn – photography
• Joshua White – photography, illustrations
• Raymond Pettibon – artwork, illustrations
• Hiro Arishima – liner notes

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Notes

References

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