Fifteen Years of Foo

Have the Foo Fighters really been around for 15 years? It’s always a surprise when contemporary acts release a greatest hits collection but it also speaks to the sustainability of the group. The Foo have chosen 16 songs for “Greatest Hits” from their extensive and Grammy-winning catalogue of tunes.

The obvious choices like “Everlong” and “My Hero” are included as well as more recent hits like “The Pretender” and “Best of You”. They probably could have done without a couple of weaker tracks like “Breakout” and “This is a Call”. The latter can be seen as a necessary inclusion though, as it was the group’s first major single.

The best tracks on here from Dave Grohl and the rest of the Foo are “Skin and Bones” and “Learn to Fly”. The whimsical ditty that is “Skin and Bones” gets a nice live treatment at Wembley Stadium in London.

Two new songs, “Wheels” and “Word Forward”, make their debut on this album. “Wheels”, the new single, sounds a little poppy for them, but in a likeable way and I think Foo fans will dig it. “Word Forward” has a really awesome guitar line right before Grohl belts the chorus. It’s just a brief chord change, and most people might not even notice it, but I love when guitarists do subtle things like that to a song.

Fans can pick up the 16-song standard edition CD or the deluxe edition which comes with a lot more goodies. The deluxe package includes a DVD of some music videos, live performance clips from Wembley Stadium, Hyde Park, and the Skin + Bones tour, a 28-page book of never before seen photos and, according to the band’s website, “a few possible treats for Easter egg hunters.”