10 Rock Bands That Completely Avoided The Sophomore Slump
8. The Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters
The fact that the first Foo Fighters album gained any traction at all was considered to be a bit of a fluke. After all, most of the record consisted of nothing more than a demo cassette tape that Dave Grohl made in a studio to get over the dissolution of Nirvana. Once Big Me and I'll Stick Around started picking up steam though, the pressure was on to see what the Foos would do next.
However, The Colour and the Shape shows Grohl really coming into his own as a songwriter, with some of the greatest melodies of his career on tracks like Monkey Wrench and My Hero. While he still has his influences of punk and classic rock on his sleeve on tracks like Enough Space and Walking After You respectively, these feel like the logical progression for the Foos, as they dial in a sound that is equal parts pretty and caustic at the exact same time.
This is also the home of Grohl's most emblematic song Everlong, which has taken on a life of its own in recent years as one of the greatest stadium rock anthems of the modern age. Though the record may have cost them drummer William Goldsmith in the process, The Colour and The Shape gave Grohl incentive that he could fit into the role of frontman just as well as he could working behind the kit.