POLL: Best Foo Fighters Single

(The correct answer is Everlong.)

fingernails are pretty
fingernails are good
seems that all they ever wanted was a marking

I like a few others, but its pretty obviously Everlong.

Yeah "Everlong" will crush this poll. But I'm gonna vote for "No Way Back" because I listened to that song constantly last year. "This Is A Call" and "Times Like These" deserve some votes, too! Even the new one, "The Pretender," is pretty good, should be on this poll but isn't.

yeah seriously, why would anyone vote for something besides "Everlong" here.

I don't recognise any of these from Times Like These onwards. I suppose that's what happens when you don't listen to Radio 1 in the daytime.

D'oh. Totally forgot the new single.

I find "Everlong" to be quite dull, actually. I'm going with "Stacked Actors," but I'm not entirely convinced that it was actually a single.

"Best of You" is the worst thing they've ever done, btw.

Oh maybe it's just me that likes the first four best.

"Big Me", but I'm a contrarian Foo.

I'll Stick Around. I don't actually get the glowing adulation for Everlong. It's a good song, but rates less than Times Like These, Best of You, My Hero, and This is a Call for me.

agreed... i'll stick around is the illest

You're right Alex. Just pulled out my cd of Stacked Actors and it's a promo only. Still a good song.

I remember "Stacked Actors" being on the sticker and them playing it on some TV show, plus Wiki says it charted on modern rock radio. They have a lot of songs that got some radio play but no video, though.

'hey, johnny park!' wasn't a single?

oh well, yet another tired vote for 'everlong'

"Best of You" is the worst thing they've ever done, btw.

Everlong 35th'd

Big Me

Best of you is fucking awesome, thus I will vote for it now.

I've gone for This Is A Call.

I'll Stick Around

generator. by miles.

Has to be Everlong. I'm not keen on Best Of You generally but it was pretty monumental at Live Earth.

Not that I was there (thank fuck).

I really wanted to vote "I'll Stick Around" but me-in-1997 intervened and voted for "Everlong" before I had the chance.

"Learn to Fly" by 20,000 feet. Fuck a "Everlong".

I was wondering why everyone was repping Everlong, as I've never heard it. So I just did, and wow it is really nice, its almost MBVish. A lot more emotional and lovely than other stuff of theirs.

That said I also really love "This is a Call".

"She sells sanctuary" oh sorry I mean "times like these"

(I don't really)

It's obviously Everlong. Best of You isn't really as bad as Alex in NYC makes it out to be...instead, it's one of the better things they've done in recent years. I voted Breakout, though, because no one else will (probably).

Voted for Everlong- used to hear it every morning at 6 a.m. on Xfm when I was 17 while I had breakfast and shower to go to work to the grocery in Gloucester Road.

Generator is the last song I liked by them. I don't think they've done a decent album since the first one though.

agree, downhill.

I'm sorry, it's Everlong. This is a call is still awesome though. Actually all four of those early singles are.

So, two days from now it's going to go to Everlong in a landslide. I'm trying to figure out why people enjoy this more than the rest of the singles.

Trayce is reminded of MBV and says it's "a lot more emotional and lovely than other stuff of theirs."

The shoegaze comparison isn't far off, especially on the intro and verse.* However, I think that when recontextualized in a Foo Fighters song, the shoegazerish trappings (soft vocals; distorted, melodic riffs; wall-of-sound) come off as flat, rather than lovely or enchanting.

I think one of Dave Grohl's strengths is his ability to write great vocal melodies (on 2 or 3 songs per album at least). The subdued verses in Everlong don't really play to that. As a result, this song faded entirely into the background for me during '97.

I'm not trying to antagonize the Everlong-loving masses. Just wondering what it is that other people hear in it that I don't.

*scanning through Foo Fighters singles on the laptop while Loveless played on the living room stereo just now opened my eyes to how heavily shoegaze plays into Grohl's riffage in general.

Just wondering what it is that other people hear in it that I don't.

Insane mad drum fills.

Everlong also just happens to have the best FF video.

"This Is A Call"

"Monkeywrench" is their only good single

Was Everlong the one with the video and the huge hands? I liked that one. (God, it's been so long since I listened to any of 'em... They came out right as I was going from being a snotty Nirvana-loving teen to a snotty Dead Kennedys-loving teen.)

They never bettered "This Is a Call".

Isn't their later stuff more melodic?

"This Is a Call" is very melodic in a Nirvana-like kind of way.

scanning through Foo Fighters singles on the laptop while Loveless played on the living room stereo just now opened my eyes to how heavily shoegaze plays into Grohl's riffage in general.

Aye, I think I just got that quick impression in the same way Corgan's guitar riffs also have that vaguely shoegazery influence. Nothing really distorted or woozy, just the kind of chord progressions in the main.

On a melody tip I do like the chorus of "My Hero" I must say.

Everlong is about the best Grant Hart Husker Du song ever written.

Never thought about it like that before, but what a brilliant point.

Was Everlong the one with the video and the huge hands? I liked that one. (God, it's been so long since I listened to any of 'em... They came out right as I was going from being a snotty Nirvana-loving teen to a snotty Dead Kennedys-loving teen.)

Weird, that was ME too. Except I was...maybe 11? I think.

Also, I had absolutely no idea that anybody even cared about this band any longer. Dave Grohl is such a smirking shithead.

I feelz old. I was on my way to being 24 when "Everlong" came out (and it still doesn't seem like a 10 year-old song).

Dave Grohl is pretty great, though. He has a million dollar smirk.

there goes my hero.

I'd just like to change my vote to "For All The Cows". Brilliant leody in the verse, hardcore in the chorus, classic tune. Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet.

I loved the first album. In fact I hate saying that because I generally look down on "early stuff was better" ignorance as a general rule. I was just a little too late on the uptake with Nirvana. In fact the first time I heard them was when a sort of mate turned up to my house when I was 13. "Kurt Cobain died today". "Who?". "The guy in Nirvana." He produced a tape from his pocket, played me "Tourettes" and that's that.

So two years later (a lifetime in teenage years) came around and everyone was Nirvana crazy because of Kurt's legacy etc I was one of the first in my school to get into "This Is A Call".

Another Nirvana fiend fobbed them off saying "All Nirvana spinoffs are gay" or something. Then everyone got into them and my geeky cries of "But I got into them first and you all ignored me!" were lost among the hubbub of Terrorvision T-shirted hordes clamouring for "The Colour And The Shape". And that's why, in a sad sad way, I never bothered with them after that first album. Shame because when I do hear later stuff I feel like I've been missing out.

leody = melody

It certainly is!

I guess I was disappointed when he gave up the solo recording/full band live thing after the first album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted for Stacked Actors because I used to listen to it on repeat all the time. One of their best songs I think.

Why is Have It All not on here??

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Walking After You (1998) 1

Who the fuck voted for this?

but you're the only one who can make me feel like...arggggggggh, SHIT!

The rancour and finality of that utterance of shit. Poetry.

I'm surprised that Low has no votes...always one of my favorite recent-era Foo songs.

"This is a Call" is great, also entire first album and most of 2nd.

http://i.imgur.com/ANHUpEn.png