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>Calling them "decent" is a smack in the face-
It's not, coming from me. I use my adjectives pretty carefully. They're enjoyable songs and well-written, they're just not anything I really need to hear that often. I certainly rate them over most less-than-decent modern rock contemporaries like Train, Creed, Matchbox 20, 311 (ugh), etc. Decent to me means "pretty good, more than workmanlike, certainly not annoying, but also not awesome." For instance, let's talk "Long Road to Ruin." The verse is an amazingly basic alternation between a 1 and 4 chord. The melody is unmemorable and just kind of meanders along (because at this point in rock's long life, it takes a lot of creativity to sing something interesting over 1-4, 1-4). The chorus is more interesting but fundamentally slick and by-the-numbers in all the areas where it counts: chords (it throws one small twist at you, the patented-by-Boston major two chord - as heard in the chorus of "Rock & Roll Band"), melody, production. It's very straight-up power pop hanging out in the space between Boston, Nelson, and something a little cooler - let's say Matthew Sweet or Fountains of Wayne or something. I really feel like a hundred different bands could have (and actually HAVE) written this song.
>Well This is a big part of his legacy though, isn't it? I >don't think OP limited it to his "big two" output.
Agreed on that point, but considering my substantially lesser opinion of Foo Fighters, basically Grohl's entire case comes down to being an awesome sideman. My point is that that simply isn't enough to get him in the conversation. He's a much more substantial figure in rock than I would have ever expected circa 1992-93, and I give him loads of credit for making his main post-Nirvana gig work out so well. But that's as far as it goes.
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