The Colour and the Shape

The album was the debut of Foo Fighters as a full band. On the first album under the Foo Fighters name, frontman Dave Grohl had performed and recorded all of the parts by himself, with the exception of one guitar part played by Greg Dulli. The band's original lineup 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 more straightforward rock record.[1] The deal the band struck with Capitol Records afforded them a large degree of creative control over the band's true "debut."[2] The songs on the record were composed during soundchecks during their extensive touring over the previous eighteen months.[3] Mendel said "the germ of every song is Dave's," with the frontman providing a riff and a basic song structure. The band would then jam and each member would contribute to some aspect of the song.[4]

Grohl recruited producer Gil Norton to provide additional pop polish to the material. He especially wanted to hear guitar overdubs and harmonies with significant clarity.[1] Grohl said he admired Norton for his earlier work with the Pixies and his ability to "distill a coherent pop song out of all [the Pixies'] multi-layered weirdness."[2] Norton was highly demanding of the band's performance, prompting bassist Nate Mendel to practice and improve his musical skill.[5] Grohl said "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."[6]

The Colour and the Shape was recorded over the period of two months, primarily at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood from January to February 1997.[1] The band spent two weeks in pre-production the previous autumn, rehearsing the tracks and changing arrangements.[1] Norton had his greatest impact during pre-production, during which he spent days with Grohl in his hotel room "stripping the songs back to their absolute basics."[3] His role in production taught the band the importance of self-editing and gave them confidence to see "the larger picture in a song."[2] Afterward, the band set off for Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington, where the first recording sessions for The Colour and the Shape began on November 18, 1996.[3] Mendel described Bear Creek as "a converted barn with a salmon stream running through it".[2] The studio was located on a farm and, for the duration of these sessions, the band lived in a cabin adjacent to the studio.[2]

Grohl, who described the sessions at Bear Creek as a "bad experience," decided to scrap nearly all of the recorded tracks.[2][7] The band took a break for the holidays, during which Grohl returned to Virginia and wrote several new songs. He recorded two of these songs by himself at WGNS Studios in Washington, D.C.: "Walking After You" and an acoustic version of "Everlong".[8]

In February 1997, the band—minus drummer William Goldsmith—relocated to Hollywood's Grandmaster Recorders, which Mendel said was "a small studio that sometimes moonlighted as a porn set, and looked the part."[2] For a period of four weeks, the band re-recorded most of the album with Grohl playing the drum tracks. Grohl's drumming started with only "Monkey Wrench", as Grohl and Norton felt the drums on that song needed more work, but by the end of the sessions recordings of Goldsmith's drumming remained on only two tracks, "Doll" and "Up in Arms".[9] According to Grohl, Goldsmith's drumming had good moments, but his performances mostly did not fit what Grohl had conceived for the drum track, so the frontman decided to redo them himself. Goldsmith even asked if he should go to Los Angeles, but Grohl declined and said he was only performing overdubs. Eventually, Mendel told Goldsmith the situation. Grohl said that he still wanted Goldsmith as a member of the band, despite replacing his tracks, but the disgruntled drummer decided to leave the Foo Fighters instead.[5] Speaking in 2011 about the tension that surrounded Goldsmith's departure, Grohl said, "There were a lot of reasons it didn't work out […] but there was also a part of me that was like, you know, I don't know if I'm finished playing the drums yet. […] I wish that I would have handled things differently."[10]

After the move to Los Angeles, the album's budget ballooned and deadlines became a more pressing concern.[11] Studio time was expensive and the group was pressured by Capitol to deliver the record in a timely fashion.[7] However, the pressure never adversely affected the band members, whose main priorities were to make "music for its own sake […] and let the commercial concerns take care of themselves."[2]

The album's title came from the band's tour manager of the time, who would often spend afternoons rummaging thrift stores and purchasing strange memorabilia; on one occasion, he purchased a bowling pin with red and white stripes, remarking to the band he rather liked "the colour and the shape" of the object.[12] The group found the phrase arbitrary and hilarious and decided to use it as the title rather than trying to choose a title based on the music's themes or moods.[12] They chose the British spelling of "colour" with a "u" as a tribute to Norton, who is British.[13] A title track was written and recorded for The Colour and the Shape during the Bear Creek sessions, but like most of the other songs attempted there, it did not reach the album's final track list. Noted as "rawer, noisier and thrashier" than the rest of the songs on the album by Louder Sound's Paul Brannigan, it later became a b-side to the album's eventual lead single, "Monkey Wrench".[14] After settling on a track sequence, Grohl was struck by the impression that the album's flow from start to finish resembled a therapy session, moving from fear and anxiety at the start to self-assurance and resolve by the end.[11] He even considered placing a therapist's couch on the album cover.[11]

Professional reviewers have characterized the musical genre of The Colour and the Shape as alternative rock,[15] grunge,[16] post-grunge,[17] punk rock,[18] and hard rock.[19] Writing in Melody Maker, Victoria Segal said the album was more cohesive than the debut and was unified by a theme of "battered romanticism".[20] More specifically, many of the lyrics address the dissolution of Grohl's marriage to Jennifer Youngblood during the winter of 1996, which Grohl said had been "the winter of my discontent."[20] The album's track sequence reflects this sentiment, chronicling his change from chaos to newfound happiness.[11] Grohl admitted the lyrics of the previous album had been "obscure" and "nonsense," but Norton challenged Grohl to write lyrics that were more meaningful and comprehensible.[20] Grohl delved deeper into his feelings with the lyrics and said "there was a new freedom: 'Wow, I can actually write about things I feel strongly about and things that mean something to me and things I wouldn't normally say in everyday conversation.'" The frontman stated that the experience was "kind of liberating," comparing the album to going to a weekly visit to the therapist "and then the rest of the week feel pretty good about everything." Grohl also found new strength in his singing, overcoming insecurities he had about his singing voice on the debut.[6] Three types of songs permeate the record: ballads, up-tempo tracks and combinations of the two. Grohl felt they were representative of the specific emotions he would feel after the divorce.[12]

Guitarist Pat Smear announced his departure from the band following the album's release; he would return in 2005

The Colour and the Shape was released on May 20, 1997, preceded the month before by lead single "Monkey Wrench". The promotional campaign emphasized the band's group identity as well as each band member's individual personality.[6] This strategy contrasted with the marketing approach for the prior album, which had centered Grohl at a time before Mendel and Smear felt comfortable being marketed as personalities.[6] Each member gave interviews with press discussing their interests, with guitarist Pat Smear talking to guitar and fashion magazines.[4] Just as recording was finished and Taylor Hawkins was hired as the new drummer (he was the former touring drummer for Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill in 1995), Smear expressed his own plans to leave the band, claiming he was exhausted and not motivated to go through with another extended tour.[5] This information was not yet highly publicized, and spokespeople for the band denied that the rumors of Smear's impending departure were true.[31] The promotional tour started in May 1997.[6] Smear departed during a September 4 concert at Radio City Music Hall, right before that year's 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, giving his instrument for the new guitarist, Franz Stahl, to finish the set.[5]

"Everlong" was released as the album's second single in August 1997. It was the most commercially successful single from the record, being certified double platinum in the United States and being one of only three Foo Fighters songs to reach that status.[32] Smear remained with the group until September 4, the night of the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. After playing "Monkey Wrench" during the "pregame show" to the event, Smear announced that it was the final song he would play with the band, introducing Franz Stahl as the band's new guitarist before the band began playing "Everlong" later that evening.[31] "My Hero" was released as the third and final single from the album in 1998. All three singles peaked inside the top ten of the Alternative Songs and Mainstream Rock charts.[33][34]

To commemorate The Colour and the Shape's tenth anniversary, it was reissued on July 10, 2007, with six additional tracks: the B-sides "Dear Lover" and "The Colour and the Shape", plus covers of Killing Joke's "Requiem", Gary Numan's "Down in the Park", Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" and Vanity 6's "Drive Me Wild".[35]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
Blender	[36]
Entertainment Weekly	B[16]
The Guardian	[37]
Los Angeles Times	[38]
NME	8/10[39]
Rolling Stone	[40]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[41]
Spin	6/10[42]
The Village Voice	A−[43]

Critical response to the record was generally positive. Victoria Segal at the UK-based Melody Maker viewed The Colour and the Shape as a significant American rock release, writing that it was "a great rock album at a time when great rock albums are viewed with increasing suspicion."[20] Segal's review described the album as leagues ahead of other post-grunge acts: "The first album might have been a collection of loveable songs, but lacked the sheer visceral attack that thrills this time round," Segal wrote, calling it "[a]n attack that would have […] almost any other US rock band biting their nails in anguish and embarrassment."[20] Writing in The Guardian, Adam Sweeting found that the "glorious" album saw the band tempering their grunge sound with a more developed flair for pop songwriting.[37]

Christina Kelly of Rolling Stone was largely positive, although she singled out Norton's production as distracting: "Colour has a big, radio-ready, modern-rock sound. Some might even call the album overproduced: On the ballads, the vocals are overprocessed and fake sounding."[40] Entertainment Weekly praised the band's growth, but criticized the sound, which journalist David Browne described as "like much current alt-rock: been there, grunged that."[16] In contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described that production as revolutionary: "everything here wound up defining the sound of post-grunge modern rock, and it remains as perhaps the best example of its kind."[17] In his review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said the music was routine but elevated by Grohl's "marital breakup content/concept," which allowed him to "fully inhabit the music that meant so much to him and millions of other Kurt Cobain fans."[43] Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork was less favorable, rating the album 3.4 out of 10 and calling the music "sorely dated."[44]

Reviewing the tenth anniversary re-release, Pitchfork was mildly more favorable. Scoring the release a 5.8 out of 10, Stuart Berman stated, "The Colour and the Shape presented a true picture of the kind of group Grohl wanted to be in, had he not been sidetracked by the job of drumming for the biggest American rock band of the early 1990s [...] that band would turn out to be much more formulaically mall-punk than the Foos' torn 'n' frayed debut suggested."[45] PopMatters' Mike Schiller reviewed the re-release with the opposite opinion, citing the self titled record's single "I'll Stick Around" as an example of "Grohl's strikingly non-aggressive (read: bland) vocal style" from the 1995 album; he then described "Monkey Wrench" as proof that Grohl "knew how to rock out" by comparison.[46]

In 2020, Metal Hammer included it in their list of the top 10 albums of 1997.[47]

Credits adapted from AllMusic.[58]

• The Colour and the Shape at Discogs (list of releases)