In Your Honor

Did You Know?

• The album entered the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart at number two behind Coldplay's X&Y with the strongest initial sales of their entire career this far—310,500 copies in the United States and 159,179 in the UK.
• As of December 2011, In Your Honor has sold 1,442,000 units in North America, being their third most successful album behind Foo Fighters and The Colour and the Shape.
• Kerrang! ranked In Your Honor as the 9th best album of 2005, while Rolling Stone put it as 30th best.

Recording

The making of In Your Honor took place between January and March 2005, with the acoustic portion completed in just two and a half weeks. The band cut forty tracks total, fifteen of which were acoustic, and twenty made the final album. Studio 606 was still under construction when the band moved in, so members pitched in with hammering, stuffing insulation, and other tasks to get it ready. Eight rock songs were written at the last minute after the acoustic record was finished, because Dave Grohl felt those tracks were stronger than the rock material already recorded. To save money and due to a shortage of tape, the band recorded onto analog tape that was reused repeatedly, then transferred everything to Pro Tools for overdubs, editing, and mixing. Nick Raskulinecz handled the rock song mixes, while Elliot Scheiner mixed the acoustic sides in both stereo and 5.1 surround.

Most songs were already written and rehearsed when the band entered the studio. Raskulinecz, who also produced One by One, noted that album was very loose, whereas In Your Honor was far more deliberate, with Grohl being especially meticulous. The electric side was recorded in stages: drums and guitars first, then vocals, and finally bass. Nate Mendel would create bass lines on Pro Tools at home before presenting them to Grohl and Raskulinecz. Recording bass after vocals allowed the team to tailor its tuning, parts, and sound to fill whatever frequency gaps remained. During the final three weeks of work on the rock songs, the band stayed in the studio from noon until eight in the morning, aiming to make the rock record as devastating as possible. After two months on the rock material, with the deadline looming, the band agreed that everyone had to be present all day and finish one song per day. Grohl would pick a tempo from a click track and improvise an arrangement on the spot, writing lyrics while the others recorded their parts. This rushed schedule prevented Mendel from writing bass lines in advance, so he focused solely on finding the right notes and locking in the rhythm.

Composition

The double album has a disc of rock songs and another with acoustic ones, which Dave Grohl said demonstrated his artistic freedom. He stated that he tried to fit the Foo Fighters sound even with stylistic differences. The band tried to do the albums without a middle ground sound, with the acoustic record far more delicate and beautiful and atmospheric, and the rock CD far more brutal and aggressive than their previous work. The arrangements aimed for complexity, with songs written to hold more orchestration including accordions, pump organs, cellos, and stand-up bass. The acoustic guitar sound has influences of Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, with open notes in conjunction with fretted notes. The lyrics on the rock album tried to focus on general themes that everyone can get their hands on, while the acoustic had introspective lyrics that are vulnerable and revealing. These include 'Friend of a Friend', a song which Grohl wrote in the 1990s about himself and his former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain during the time they shared an apartment together in 1990, and 'Still', talking about a suicide Grohl saw when he was ten in Virginia. Much of the album's theme and content, including the title, came after Grohl spent time on the campaign trail with John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election. Grohl said that what he saw inspired him.

Release and promotion

Dave Grohl set the album's price just one dollar more than a standard single-disc CD, reasoning that the two discs worked together as a single package and that he didn't need extra money. The first 25,000 copies sold in the U.S. came as a special DualDisc edition, with a making-of documentary on the first disc and the second disc mixed in 5.1 surround sound. RCA also pressed 5,000 copies as a quadruple vinyl LP. Sony BMG, the distributor, included MediaMax CD-3 copy protection software, which later sparked a scandal because its rootkit-like design left computers open to malware. The promotional push featured the MTV special "24 Hours of Foo." The first single, "Best of You," came out on May 30, 2005, and became the band's highest-charting single on the main U.S., U.K., and Australian charts. The follow-up, "DOA," was released on August 22 after an early debut as a ringtone for Cingular cell phones; like "Best of You," it topped Billboard's Modern Rock Songs chart. Additional singles included "Resolve" and a double A-side of "No Way Back" and "Cold Day in the Sun." The In Your Honor Tour started in summer 2005 and ran through June 2006, with two shows per city: an electric set in arenas and an acoustic set in smaller venues. Late 2005 concerts were part of the Foozer Tour, co-headlined with Weezer. Acoustic shows from August 29, 30, and 31, 2006 at Los Angeles's Pantages Theater became the live album "Skin and Bones."

Critical reception

In Your Honor was generally met with positive reviews. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 70, based on 26 reviews. Jon Pareles of The New York Times considered the album an unexpected magnum opus, though he felt the rock CD overpowers the acoustic one. Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly described the discs as the outdoors and indoors sides, with the rockers packing an intoxicating wallop and the acoustic songs being very pretty. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered that the record showcases a reinvigorated band eager to stretch out and experiment. Joe Gross of Spin described the hard rock disc as the most consistent rockers of Grohl's career. Mike Schiller of PopMatters considered that In Your Honor has some great tunes but is by no means perfect, praising the rock songs for indications of how loud this band can get and writing that despite the down-tempo feel, the acoustic songs are infectious.