Maps of Music

In Your Honor (2005)

Where the lyrics of In Your Honor take you, and where it was really made.

A rock band's album was split into a loud disc and a quiet acoustic disc, yet the double album was sold at just one dollar above the price of a regular single-disc CD.

Key places

Where the album was recorded (2005)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album was recorded at Studio 606 West, a new studio built in a warehouse in Northridge, California. The sessions ran from January to March 2005. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• In Your Honor: fifth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters
• Released June 14, 2005 through Roswell and RCA Records
• Double album: the first disc holds heavy rock songs, the second mellower acoustic songs
• Frontman Dave Grohl wanted a diverse blend, feeling the band had to break new ground after ten years
• Lyrics mix resonating and introspective themes
• Major influence: Grohl's campaign work with John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election
• First album to feature keyboardist Rami Jaffee, who did not join as a full-time member until 2016

Background

• After touring for One by One, Grohl was unsure what the band should do next
• He considered a film score and began writing acoustic songs that eventually filled a full album
• He decided against an acoustic record and chose a double album instead
• A decisive moment was finding five hours of music among the demos
• The band had been together for ten years and this was its fifth record

Recording

• The album was recorded at Studio 606 West, a new studio built in a warehouse in Northridge, Los Angeles
• Development took nine months, with three and a half months spent installing equipment
• Sessions ran from January to March 2005; the acoustic record took only two and a half weeks
• Forty tracks were recorded, fifteen of them acoustic, and half ended on the final track list
• Guests included John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Norah Jones and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age)
• Producer Nick Raskulinecz also worked on One by One

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Seattle in 1994 as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
• Grohl recorded the debut album mostly alone in six days after Nirvana disbanded.
• Recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate, and guitarist Pat Smear.
• The band made its first public performance in February 1995, five months before the debut album's release.

Members

• Current members: Dave Grohl (vocals, guitar), Nate Mendel (bass), Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett (guitars), Rami Jaffee (keyboards), Ilan Rubin (drums).
• Taylor Hawkins died in March 2022; Josh Freese served as drummer from 2023 to 2025 and Rubin from 2025 onward.

Career

• Released twelve studio albums, the twelfth, Your Favorite Toy, in April 2026.
• Won 15 Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album five times.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, their first year of eligibility.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviews were mostly positive, praising the composition and sound
• Some critics found the album overlong and inconsistent
• The New York Times: Jon Pareles called it an unexpected magnum opus, while finding the rock disc overpowered the acoustic one
• Entertainment Weekly: Tom Sinclair called the rock disc 90-proof rock and said listeners would probably revisit the rockin' half more often
• AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine described a reinvigorated band eager to stretch out and experiment
• Rolling Stone: Barry Walters praised the acoustic songs but said the album could have been pruned to one disc
• Billboard: Bram Teitelman said isolating the electric and acoustic sides made the concept repetitious
• Pitchfork: Amanda Petrusich described the record as sterile and controlled
• Metacritic: average score of 70, based on 26 reviews

Reappraisal

• Rolling Stone and Kerrang! later placed the album on their year-end best lists
• Kerrang! ranked it 9th best album of 2005; Rolling Stone put it 30th

Records

• Entered the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart at number two behind Coldplay's X&Y
• First-week sales: 310,500 copies in the United States and 159,179 in the UK
• Topped the charts in Australia, Finland, New Zealand and Ireland
• Reached the top five in Canada, Austria and Denmark
• Sold 1,442,000 units in North America as of December 2011
• Certified Platinum by the RIAA; multi-platinum in Canada, Australia and the UK
• Nominated for five Grammy Awards at the 48th ceremony, with no wins

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album's price was just one dollar above a regular single-disc CD, because Grohl felt the two discs complemented each other in one package.
• RCA considered selling the two parts separately for more profit, but Grohl refused.
• John Paul Jones agreed to appear because he was in Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards.
• The song Friend of a Friend was written about Grohl and his former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain, during the time they shared an apartment in 1990.
• Nearly fifteen years after the album's release, Razor appeared on an episode of The Flash.
• Distributor Sony BMG issued the album with the copy protection software MediaMax CD-3, which later led to a scandal.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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