Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters: There Is Nothing Left to LoseThere Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999)
Sony Music Entertainment

Reviewer Rating: 4

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Contributed by: lostandclownedlostandclowned
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Published on October 3rd 2008I think the last record sounds like a hardcore band trying to be a melodic rock band. --Dave Grohl,1999 In recording Foo Fighters' previous album, The Colour and the Shape, drummer William Goldsmith left the band citing creative differences with the other members. Likewise, guitarist Pat Smear wo.

I think the last record sounds like a hardcore band trying to be a melodic rock band.

--Dave Grohl,1999

In recording Foo Fighters' previous album, The Colour and the Shape, drummer William Goldsmith left the band citing creative differences with the other members. Likewise, guitarist Pat Smear would also depart after the album's release. Alanis Morissette's drummer, Taylor Hawkins, was brought in to play drums for The Colour and the Shape's subsequent tour and Dave Grohl's former Scream bandmate, Franz Stahl, was brought in to play guitar. While writing and recording There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Stahl would be asked to leave the band also due to creative differences, leaving Grohl, Hawkins and bassist Nate Mendel to carry on as a three-piece.

The resulting record was Foo Fighters at their most accessible and comfortable. The three members lived in Grohl's Virginia home as they wrote and recorded the album in the spring of 1999 without the aid of a record label, after leaving Capitol Records due to label personnel changes. Besides the album's first song, the Pixies/Hüsker Dü-sounding "Stacked Actors," There Is Nothing Left to Lose is a mix of radio-friendly rock songs and mellow front-porch anthems. Breakout singles (pun completely intended) like "Learn to Fly" and "Breakout" are simple and catchy compositions that helped define the modern rock of the `90s. More than that, though, those songs, along with deeper cuts like "Live-in Skin" and "Headwires," don't date themselves. Raised on punk rock and hardcore, Foo Fighters never succumbed to any of the trends of the `90s and always wrote music for music's sake.

Enter songs like the electric ballads "Aurora" and "Next Year." The former is a lightly distorted epic that rivals "Everlong" for most beloved song by die-hard fans; "Next Year" was also released as a single and became the theme song for the television program "Ed."

The record's centerpiece and most poignant song is "Ain't It the Life," reflecting the band's mood of the era. It's also "the only song I'd be comfortable playing on my porch," according to Grohl. That description is fitting for a song about moving away from the artificial side of Los Angeles to old familiar Virginia: "Hey wait I thought you made it / How'd your bottled crown fall off / Tell me how'd you get so tired / Fade it down to the wire / Try living a lie / Kicking out the same old guise / Wasting time."

There Is Nothing Left to Lose would go onto win the Grammy awards for Best Rock Album and Best Short Form Music Video ("Learn to Fly"). Before the tour cycle started, the band recruited No Use for a Name guitarist Chris Shiflett, and before recording the One by One album, would ask him to join the band permanently. He accepted.

A fair number of fans scrutinize this record for being too poppy and where Foo Fighters started venturing into soundtrack territory. Those are fair arguments but this album is the sound of a band coming together and gaining their confidence in the process. For a band that made records believing each one would be their last, that's commendable.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Stenny (November 26, 2009)

Best Foo Fighters record, followed closely by colour and the shape.

Album is Foo Fighters at the most 'Foo'

swellersfan7407 (February 20, 2009)

thtis album is sooo good.

Bowen (October 7, 2008)

Score is for Stacked Actors, Aurora, Breakout, and Generator

joeg (October 6, 2008)

this was the last decent foo fighters record. they went downhill after this one. the last one with the single the pretender....simply awful.

INDW (October 6, 2008)

the most overrated band of the present day; as a friend once commented, they're the U2 of our generation.

greg0rb (October 5, 2008)

Yeah, like Peter Frampton used right? But it's like a combo of guitar and voice, right? Yeah I thought it was awesome because I was really starting to get into synthesizers back then and it sounds synth-like.
-Greg

lostandclowned (October 5, 2008)

the effect on "Generator" is actually a talkbox.

darthnader (October 5, 2008)

great review

but score is for the mention of everlong. that song will never grow old.

greg0rb (October 5, 2008)

Didn't mention my favorite track- Generator. That guitar effect really did it for me back then. Honestly haven't listened to this in quite a while but I really liked it at the time.
-Greg

schrutebucks (October 4, 2008)

This review does not give Colour And The Shape its due. That was the Foo's breakout record, not this. Monkey Wrench, My Hero, & Everlong were all big hits.

eazyd2 (October 4, 2008)

needs more cowbell.

oskorei (October 4, 2008)

I was originally disappointed when I first heard this album. Comparing it to the first two and all. Over time I have really came to like quite a few of the songs, it holds up.

and i gotta support Dave Grohl. The dude is one of the greatest rock stars of my generation.

istapledmyfoot (October 4, 2008)

scream was DC, and they were sick.

nocigar (October 4, 2008)

great album. always liked whatever these guys put out, like mentioned somewhere below...grohl is just a genuine dude who can make catchy tunes. gotta love the foo.

xkidxdynamitex (October 4, 2008)

this record singlehandedly changed my taste in music.
and susequently got me into punk rock.
i love this record.

lostandclowned (October 3, 2008)

yeah, "Fraternity" is one of my favorite Foo songs.

-Strewtho- (October 3, 2008)

I know it's cliche but I liked the first two records and I find this one to be fairly boring aside from Stacked Actors and a b-side called Fraternity. Too mellow and radio ready.

saint_jake (October 3, 2008)

I don't hate the Foo Fighters, but I've always been a little surprised at how much love they get.

Their first two albums are really good. But every album since then has had about three solid songs on it and a bunch of filler, but people still go nuts over it. I guess that makes them consistent, if nothing else, but they've always seemed overrated to me.

That said, Dave Grohl is still one of the most genuine guys in music.

i-type-poorly (October 3, 2008)

Dave's quote sounds more apt to the last three Foo albums. They started to go downhill after this one, but it's a fantastic album, and their most versatile.

bryne (October 3, 2008)

This is my favorite Foo Fighters record.

mikexdude (October 3, 2008)

Or was scream DC?

This album rules very hard. The only Foo Fighters album I didn't like was that new one, it wasn't too bad though.

StrangeSlowOld (October 3, 2008)

Great album.

Score is for "Stacked Actors" and "Aurora".

xote (October 3, 2008)

Good album. Good band. SCREAM was also the shit. VA represent!