In Your Honour [2CD]

Foo Fighters

Inspired by the American public that Dave Grohl met on the trail while campaigning for John Kerry during the 2004 US Election campaign, In Your Honour could easily have fallen flat, a casualty of George W Bush's triumphant return to the Whitehouse. That it isn't is thanks to Grohl's garrulous enthusiasm and skill for songs that vibrate with Everyman optimism - after all, who else in rock could snarl a line like "It's a shame we have to die my dear/ No-one's getting out of here alive" ("DOA") and still sound like they're beaming from ear to ear?

Sprawling across two CDs - one `rock', one `acoustic' - In Your Honour perhaps suffers from the overarching ambitions common to the double album format: despite gems like "Hell" and "The Last Song", the first disc is a little one-paced to hold your attention to the end. The acoustic disc, however, is a surprisingly eclectic success. "Friend Of A Friend", written back in 1992 while Grohl was still drumming in Nirvana, broods with a dark intensity, while the presence of guests Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and chanteuse Norah Jones - who duets with Grohl on gently intriguing lounge-jazz number "Virginia Moon" - lend In Your Honour an intriguing extra dimension. --Louis Pattison