The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Foo Fighters (as Late!)

[#] Pocketwatch (1990)

Charmingly anonymous, given its source.

Reviewed July 9, 2025

In 1991, right as Dave Grohl was starting to get wrapped up in this whole Nirvana thing, Sebadoh-style, he released this little home-recorded tape of his own songs. I discussed the sordid history of Pocketwatch alongside the restoration I did of it as a teenager, but fated to stay cassette-only, despite Dave's name and multi-instrumentalist chops, it's always been a little hard to come by. Dave never intended these songs to be anything big, and that's why I like it, dammit. In a world of tired Foo albums with grand emotions and mission statements, this is pre-entertainer Dave, unassumingly mixing genres and having a good time doing it.

Aside from playing every instrument on here, Dave has always been really good with the business end of a pop song. It's how he can pull such a sweet chorus out of a sludgy growler like "Petrol C.B." or put an innocently-voiced, wistful song like "Milk" after a dark, creeping instrumental like "Bruce". We all know Dave can write a pop song, but Pocketwatch has a personality to go with it, the rolling metal backing behind the spoken word story of Skeeter Thompson's cock, the murky depths of "Throwing Needles" moments after the solo acoustic reflection on his new bandmates in "Friend of a Friend" ends. A fun run of the spectrum between pop and sludge, and an excellent introduction to the world of home-recorded cassette albums.

Essential:	"Petrol C.B.", "Bruce", "Milk"
Quintessential:	"Winnebago"
Non-Essential:	"Hell's Garden"
Rating:
Further listening:	Download my Pocketwatch restoration from the Internet Archive