Eamon Blog
Today's Shelf Pull: Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape
Big choruses, quieter corners, and the distance between them
Across four vinyl sides, the strong choruses and quieter passages give each other something useful to push against.
Foo Fighters make room for more than impact on The Colour and the Shape. The guitars supply plenty of weight, but the melodic hooks give that weight a destination. It is a rock record with somewhere to go, not merely something to prove.
Released in 1997, the album is presented here on 2LP vinyl, with thirteen songs across four sides. That arrangement offers a useful way into its contrasts: short pieces beside longer ones, forceful choruses beside passages that leave more space around the song.
The useful thing to listen for is how those differences work together. The quieter material does not feel like an apology for the noise, and the louder songs need not carry every feeling at once. There is room for both without a committee meeting.
Start with the proportions. Doll opens Side A at just 1:23, before Monkey Wrench takes over. An opening that brief changes the scale of what follows: the album has barely introduced itself before its more muscular side comes into view.
Monkey Wrench supplies an early example of the record's central bargain: driving guitars and a hook that remains clear inside the pressure. The force matters, but so does the shape of the song. Neither has to stand aside for the other.
Side A continues through Hey, Johnny Park! and My Poor Brain. Keep those titles in sequence rather than treating the opener and the familiar chorus as the whole account. Four songs make a more interesting introduction than one track asked to represent everything.
On Side B, Wind Up and Up In Arms precede My Hero, with See You closing the side. The two shorter songs give way to a longer centre of attention, then another short finish. Even the running order has a sense of proportion.
My Hero belongs to the album's more forceful face, where melody and muscular arrangement travel together. But See You gets the last place on this side. That is worth remembering when a large chorus threatens to become your entire memory of an album.
Side C places Enough Space, February Stars and Everlong together. It is a compact illustration of why the album rewards more than a quick visit to its best-known titles. The reflective middle song gives the sequence another pace and another kind of attention.
February Stars asks for patience rather than immediate impact. Its slow-building character brings the spacious side of the record forward, making the contrast with the harder material feel purposeful. Restraint has a job here; it is not simply the absence of a loud guitar.
Everlong follows that stretch of reflection. Listen to the meeting of melodic insistence and guitar weight rather than waiting only for the big release. The album's strongest trick is making those qualities feel mutually dependent, with the tune carrying as much urgency as the arrangement.
The four-side structure makes these changes easy to notice without turning them into a lesson. Side C contains only three songs, but its sequence has enough contrast to feel substantial. A short list of titles can still make a full stretch of listening.
Side D pairs Walking After You with New Way Home, at 5:04 and 5:40 respectively. These are the two longest tracks in the listed sequence. After the shorter turns earlier on, the closing side gives both songs considerably more time on the clock.
Walking After You brings the quieter, reflective approach into that final pairing. It is a useful corrective to an account of this album made entirely from its heavy guitars. The softer material belongs to the argument.
New Way Home closes the thirteen-song sequence. By then, the shifts between direct attack and slower reflection have become the point, rather than interruptions along the way. The album makes a case for hearing those modes together.
For today's Kilmorna shelf pull in Listowel, that is the invitation: give the whole sequence its time. The big songs can look after themselves. The spaces between them are where the record becomes more than their sum.
On the shelf today:
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
2LP, 1997
Rock
EUR 33.95
Available from The Kilmorna Collection, Listowel
Buy or reserve: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl/foo-fighters-the-colour-and-the-shape
Buying vinyl records in Ireland: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl-records-ireland
On the shelf today
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
2LP / Rock / 1997
EUR33.95 / Available now
Order / Reserve