Foo Fighters celebrate their fame on latest

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl likes being a rock star.\nWhen listening to the Foo Fighters' new album, One by One, you get the idea that, like his legal nemesis and former bandmate's widow, Courtney Love, Grohl digs being famous. On "Halo," Grohl even thanks a higher power for his success. "Halo / God only knows / Right behind me everywhere I go," he sings. \nIn fact, One by One often sounds like a man in self-celebration. Like a guy who seems proud to make VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists list, he coos on "Disenchanted Lullaby," "No one has a fit like I do / I'm the only one that fits you" - just in case you didn't think Grohl had a romantic side.\nAs for the rest of the album, I can safely say it's the Foo Fighters' best since 1997's The Colour and the Shape. That's not saying much, though, since their only studio release since was 1999's horrid There's Nothing Left to Lose, an album so poor it could be confused for posers like Matchbox 20 or Third Eye Blind.\nOn One by One, choruses and riffs get repeated like mantras as if the band wants you waking up in the middle of the night screaming its lyrics and playing air guitar. The awesome lead-off tune, "All My Life," succeeds greatly at this with its closing oft-repeated line: "Done, done, on to the next one." It's a great single, and it proves that Grohl's at his best when he is screaming or growling a lyric as opposed to floating atop a melody.\nAlso worth commendation is bassist Nate Mendel. His work in Sunny Day Real Estate was highly underrated, and his gymnastic, Mike Watt-influenced playing ensures that the Foo Fighters will always have a bedrock of a rhythm section.\nFor those wondering whether Grohl's drumming for Queens of the Stone Age killer Songs for the Deaf would reinvigorate the Foo Fighters, it appears so only here and there, most notably with the downtuned guitars in the album closer, "Come Back." Perhaps Grohl thought that QOTSA was a musically noble but commercially futile combo.\nPerhaps he doesn't think they are going to be rock stars.