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One by One
Skezz
8,493 posts
Why is it considered a bad album? Personally it's the first Foo album I purchased and while it's not my favourite. I honestly think if the rock disc of IYH was the complete album I'd rank that below 1x1.
Comments
I like One By One. While I agree that it’s not my favourite - I don’t see it as bad at all.
Also: Halo is a banger!
I'm not sure it's really weak persay. It's just that people hold for first 3 records in high esteem that this was a perceived dropoff? I guess side b is a little weaker?
It was the first album where they avoided the majority of songs live. They played the first 4 songs every night, did Tired of You for a good chunk of that tour, would bust out Disenchanted Lullabye on stuff like "We're playing 2 nights here, so we can't just do the same set" type shows, and the rest of it got very little attention. I wanna say there's 3 songs they basically never did once even (i wouldn't count the early comeback version they played like once)
Disenchanted Lullaby was played on CD:UK I remember. I thought it was being worked up to be a single. I really like it and remember them playing during the mini acoustic set part during the espg set in Newcastle.
I can't really find the weak spot on the album. I think the tracks are pretty strong overall. It's also probably the heaviest their sound has been.
As someone in their circle @Tim did you hear the Million $ Demos? How does the album differ?
Big expectations after the first three albums. All My Life was a monster and excellent lead single. The rest of the record is pretty flat compared to those three first records and lead single. In my opinion, the mixing and mastering hurt the final product. If Have It All, Lonely As You and Overdrive had a different/cleaner/crunchier mix, I think it would have been a big positive. There isn't as much melody on the record. There are a lot of repetitive lines and it is not as dynamic of a musical canvas.
Times Like These is a great, timeless song, and to me, almost doesn't fit. I have listened to all of the records endlessly throughout the past 23 years and like to listen to the LPS in sequencial order when possible. 'One By One' just isn't as strong as all of their other work.
I think it is great that many people love and hold this album in high regard. I personally think 'Conrete and Gold' and 'Echoes' are two of their strongest, most musical and beautiful, and best 4-5 records, but know I am in the minority.
I have mixed feelings of 1X1.
IMO it has great stuff on it, including the stuff everybody hates such as Burn Away, but it also has very bad stuff, like Overdrive,
It was somehow the beginning of the ’new’ Foo Fighters where their songwriting started to change away from the melody driven stuff and towards the more riff based more ’rocking’ songwriting.
With better production the album could have been great, but as the process was what it was it’s kind of a miracle the album or the band even exist..
I’ll always be partial to the first 3 albums but the 1X1 era was also really good, the shows were amazing (lucky we have EBH as a reminder) and the good stuff on the albums is really good.
I do not understand the bad rap the album gets as they’ve done much worse since then, IMO it’s their last great album.
the Million Dollar Demos (most of them) are online, they were shared a couple of years ago. I have them downloaded somewhere
I really like One by One... Come Back is awesome, one of my favs.
I realised after posting that I had them. 🤦♂️
Come back, lonely as you, Halo and Burn away are all songs that i really like induvidually, but put together on an album they sound flat and booring. The album has a certain pollished sound. It has a digital feel and it sounds really comprimised (or something, im not a mixer) and this sound stayed with the band up until Wasting light. If you compare the demo of D.O.A. to the original that to me demonstrates how the band in this period started overdoing things in the studio.
I like it. Have It All is one of my favorite songs ever, and I love the odd harmonies on Halo (and, thanks to working in a grocery store, I get that song in my head every time I pass the Halo oranges. :D).
Have it all should be bigger than it is. It was sort of a single. It was what they used to promote everywhere but home
Agreed. Have it All is a tremendous song. I love the live version where Shiflett's playing is more featured than on the studio track. It is an awesome song in general, but was great to experience live that tour.
I love Have It All. Still listen to it fairly often
It’s a fantastic song.
Add the 2002 RUSH-esque live ending extension and it’s perfect!
I love how he sings the live version. "Go on and have, oh yeah!"
Love the have it all love in the thread.
Disappointed at the total lack of low mentions. Low is an absolute gem for me. It starts all in immediately. There's this mysterious darkness in Dave's vocals that I can't remember listening elsewhere.
And that God awful hilarious wtf video. Very few thing make me look the other way... But seeing these two hero's losing it like that was as hilarious as it was uncomfortable.
Also from the era, I'll never understand why they didn't include Normal on the album, one of their finest songs. As well as Walking a Line which gets tons of love from a lot of people.
Peak 1x1: Halo. Guess it will never get played.
I'd rank ESP&G under this. Maybe, probably.
I've had Have it All running through my head all day ...
I was going to say I think Low would be bigger and played a lot more if it wasn't for the video. If it was a video that could have played at all hours of the day it would be bigger than some of their other singles
I think the main problem is the album has too many similar songs and really isn't a good piece of music to put on and listen to from start to finish - too many average songs. I haven't listened to it in years.
Wasting light was great and Concrete and Gold not quite as good but still a good listen with the strong songs spread out through the record.
After years and years of people insisting the million dollar demos must be better because of knowing how Come Back was and hearing 20 seconds of Lonely as You, it's pretty refreshing to see someone ask how they are then realize they already had the songs for like 6 or 7 years , haha
A few of the songs do sound a little better (Halo, Overdrive, Have it All), a few are worse (All My Life), and it's missing 2 of the strongest songs on the final record (Times Like These, Low). Overall, it's cool to hear but I'd much sooner put on the final record than go out of my way to listen to it.
@Tim yeah it's a novelty. I like the album as it is. I'd like to have had walking the line and normal make the record; but not sure how they'd fit into the overall sound of the rest of the album.
I mean hindsight is wonderful as we all know, but somehow I feel like if Normal was on there it wouldn’t be as special as it is now.
@IamBec that's fair I guess. They left some of the stronger tracks off this and IYH in my opinion
1000% agree. Songs left off the records or non-singles even tend to be held in higher regard cause people just dont' get as sick of them. Normal and Walking a Line are nice and all but they're probably not quite as revered if they were just on the album.
The main thing that holds this album back is the awful, awful mastering. I don't know what happened to cause it sounding so bad, but you really can't crank the album without hearing tons of distortion and in headphones it doesn't feel good either. Still it has All My Life, Have It all, Low and Times Like These. All amazing songs, but the rest of the album sucks. I do wish they'd put up the real official music video for Times Like These. Thankfully I have the DVD/EP that has the bridge video.
Can't find that video anywhere. Not even on YouTube last time I checked.
Yep. That's what I am saying. Some good songs, not not justice by engineering/mixing/mastering...and just not as good as the rest of their catalog. The band agree.