Foo Fighters
Skin and Bones
(SonyBMG)
This live acoustic-with-strings set by the Foo Fighters will draw comparisons to Nirvana’s classic MTV Unplugged. Perhaps that’s unfair but it is unavoidable and necessary. Beyond the obvious connection—Dave Grohl—it provides a concrete example of what works, and doesn’t, with sessions like this. The MTV set was held in a small room where the intimacy and desperation of Cobain’s performance was palpable. The larger concert setting for Skin and Bones leaves this performance devoid of any character. Although stripped-down arrangements usually lead to revealing versions of hits, songs like “Everlong,” “Hero” and “Marigold” are instead lifeless and lame.
—Dave Hayden