One by One is the fourth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters, released on October 22, 2002, through Roswell and RCA Records. Production on the album was troubled, with initial recording sessions considered unsatisfying and raising tensions between the band members. They eventually decided to redo the album from scratch during a two-week period at frontman Dave Grohl's home studio in Alexandria, Virginia. The album, which includes the successful singles "All My Life" and "Times Like These", has been noted for its introspective lyrics and a heavier, more aggressive sound compared to the band's earlier work, which Grohl said was intended to translate the energy of the Foo Fighters' live performances into a recording. This was the first album recorded with Chris Shiflett as part of the band, and the first in which Grohl did not play drums, as drum duties were permanently assigned to Taylor Hawkins.
The album was a commercial success, topping the charts in Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, and sold over one million copies in the United States. One by One was positively received by critics, who praised its sound and production, and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2004, the second for the band.
Production
Frontman Dave Grohl began working on new material for the band's next album as early as 2000 during the band's tour promoting There Is Nothing Left to Lose. Following the tour, the band started to compose songs for their next album in early 2001. After demo work in drummer Taylor Hawkins' home studio in Topanga, the band used the second quarter of 2001 to perform in European festivals. In August, after performing in Chelmsford's V Festival, Hawkins suffered a heroin overdose that left him in a coma for two weeks. After taking time off to recover, during which Grohl accepted an offer to play drums for the Queens of the Stone Age on their album Songs for the Deaf, the band got together in October 2001 to continue composition. During November and December, they had been recording at Grohl's Studio 606 in Alexandria, Virginia, working with both the producer for their previous album, Adam Kasper, and recording engineer Nick Raskulinecz, whom they met after he had engineered "A320" for Godzilla: The Album. Raskulinecz had just left his job at Sound City Studios, and speculated that Grohl, having found difficulty in 'finding a guy who would commit to sitting in his basement for four months', picked him for his energetic and enthusiastic nature.
The progress of the Virginia sessions started to become stale, so with six tracks finished, in January 2002 the band moved to Los Angeles' Conway Studios for a "change of scenery". 29 songs were recorded, including "The One"—featured in the film Orange County and released as a standalone single— and ten finished tracks that were considered for the upcoming album. The sessions took four months and were at the cost of over US$1,000,000. It was the first Foo Fighters album produced with Pro Tools and on which the band members have recorded separately.
The recording sessions were considered unsatisfying; Hawkins said that "nobody had their studio chops together", and Grohl considered that the band was lacking enthusiasm and were too focused on production, adding that he felt the rough mixes "sucked a lot of the life out of the songs" and "sound[e]d like another band playing our songs." Tensions were escalating, as arguments broke out at the studio, and Hawkins said he "didn't feel we were much of a band" as there was much animosity among the bandmembers. Bassist Nate Mendel said that he was in a bad attitude during the sessions due to disagreements with Grohl, and guitarist Chris Shiflett added that he felt he would at times spend whole days in the studio without playing anything.
The band also showed disappointment with the ten songs that emerged from the sessions, as Hawkins described the finished tracks as "million-dollar demos", and Grohl considered the recordings "far too clean, too tame and boring". The band only liked five of the ten songs, and thought that listeners would enjoy the other five anyway. Grohl was afraid to promote the album because of his lack of confidence in it. After manager John Silva listened to the recordings, he agreed that it was not a work that represented the band well, and that "we can release it now, but I don't know if anyone would want to buy it".