Foo fighters colour and shape double lp

	£		31
	$		41

you are bidding on a superb copy, brought 2hand many years ago the Foo Fighters Colour and Shape double LP

The Colour and the Shape is the second studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters, released on May 20, 1997 by Roswell and Capitol Records. Produced by Gil Norton, it was the official debut of the Foo Fighters as a band, as their eponymous 1995 debut album was primarily recorded by frontman Dave Grohl and producer Barrett Jones as a demo. After the project ballooned and became an international success, the group convened for pre-production on their second album in the fall of 1996, and brought in producer Norton to establish a pop sensibility for the tracks. The band strived to create a full-fledged rock record, although the music press predicted another grunge offshoot.

• November–December 1996
• January–February 1997

• Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington
• WGNS Studios, Washington, D.C.
• Grandmaster Recorders, Hollywood, California

• Alternative rock
• post-grunge
• hard rock
• grunge

• Roswell
• Capitol

1. "Monkey Wrench"
   Released: April 28, 1997
2. "Everlong"
   Released: August 18, 1997
3. "My Hero"
   Released: January 19, 1998

Primarily inspired by Grohl's divorce from photographer Jennifer Youngblood in 1996, the lyricism on  The Colour and the Shape is substantially more introspective and the music more developed. The album's track listing was designed to resemble a therapy session, splitting the album between uptempo tracks and ballads, reflecting conflicting emotions. Early sessions at the Bear Creek studio in Washington were poor and led the band to discard most of the recordings. The band regrouped without drummer William Goldsmith in early 1997 to record a second time at Hollywood's Grandmaster Recordings studio, with Grohl sitting in on drums instead. Goldsmith was offended and disgruntled that most of his material was re-recorded, and left the band shortly thereafter.

The singles "Monkey Wrench", "Everlong" and "My Hero" peaked within the top ten of US rock radio charts, and the album charted at number three in the United Kingdom. Critics found the album a significant American rock release of the era, and it is now viewed as a seminal modern rock album. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1998 for Best Rock Album. The Colour and the Shape is the Foo Fighters' biggest U.S. seller, having sold over two million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album was remastered and reissued in 2007 with several bonus tracks for its tenth anniversary.

Contents

BackgroundEdit

The album was the debut of Foo Fighters as a band, as frontman Dave Grohl had recorded all of the first album by himself with the exception of one guitar part by Greg Dulli. The band's original lineup was assembled for their exhaustive touring schedule throughout 1995 and 1996, during which the band became an international sensation on the strength of singles "This Is a Call", "I'll Stick Around" and "Big Me". Although the music press generally speculated the band's sophomore record would showcase grunge-inspired garage rock, the band's intention was to make a proper rock record. The deal the band struck with Capitol Records allowed a large degree of creative control regarding the band's true "debut." The songs on the record were composed during soundchecks during the extensive touring that the band went through for the previous eighteen months. Mendel stated "the germ of every song is Dave's," with the frontman providing a riff and the basic structure, and afterwards the band would jam and each member would contribute to a part of the song.

For the band's second album, Grohl recruited producer Gil Norton to provide additional pop polish to the material, demanding to hear guitar overdubs and harmonies with significant clarity. Grohl admired Norton from his work with the Pixies and how he was able to "distil a coherent pop song out of all their multi-layered weirdness." Norton was very demanding of the band's performance, eventually leading bassist Nate Mendel to enhance his musical formation. Grohl also stated that "it was frustrating and it was hard and it was long, but at the end of the day you listened back to what you'd done and you understood why you had to do it one million times."