The Colour and the Shape is the second studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters, released on May 20, 1997, by Roswell and Capitol Records.

The Colour and the Shape is widely considered a defining album of the post-grunge genre, with its three singles becoming staples of rock-oriented radio in the United States.

After the debut became an international success, Grohl recruited guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, and drummer William Goldsmith to form the band's full lineup.

The group convened in the fall of 1996 for pre-production on a second album, and brought in Gil Norton as producer to establish a pop sensibility for the tracks.

The band strived to create a full-fledged rock record, contrary to music press predictions that it would be another grunge offshoot.

Primarily inspired by Grohl's divorce from photographer Jennifer Youngblood in 1996, The Colour and the Shape is more lyrically introspective and musically developed than the Foo Fighters' debut.

The Colour and the Shape remains the Foo Fighters' biggest seller in the U.S., having sold more than two million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"[2] Norton was highly demanding of the band's performance, prompting bassist Nate Mendel to practice and improve his musical skill.

[1] Norton had his greatest impact during pre-production, during which he spent days with Grohl in his hotel room "stripping the songs back to their absolute basics.

"[3] His role in production taught the band the importance of self-editing and gave them confidence to see "the larger picture in a song.

"[2] Afterward, the band set off for Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington, where the first recording sessions for The Colour and the Shape began on November 18, 1996.

[8] In February 1997, the band—minus drummer William Goldsmith—relocated to Hollywood's Grandmaster Recorders, which Mendel said was "a small studio that sometimes moonlighted as a porn set, and looked the part.

Grohl said that he still wanted Goldsmith as a member of the band, despite replacing his tracks, but the disgruntled drummer decided to leave the Foo Fighters instead.

[7] However, the pressure never adversely affected the band members, whose main priorities were to make "music for its own sake […] and let the commercial concerns take care of themselves.

"[2] The album's title came from the band's tour manager of the time, who would often spend afternoons rummaging thrift stores and purchasing strange memorabilia; on one occasion, he purchased a bowling pin with red and white stripes, remarking to the band he rather liked "the colour and the shape" of the object.

[20] Writing in Melody Maker, Victoria Segal said the album was more cohesive than the debut and was unified by a theme of "battered romanticism".

I've had so many fucking bullshit jobs for the half of my life—you know, working in furniture warehouses and planting trees, painting houses—and it's a lot more fun to play music.

When Grohl entered the studio, he changed Goldsmith's original drum part to resemble Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" so the rest of the group would be satisfied with putting it on the record.

[6] Each member gave interviews with press discussing their interests, with guitarist Pat Smear talking to guitar and fashion magazines.

It was the most commercially successful single from the record, being certified double platinum in the United States and being one of only three Foo Fighters songs to reach that status.

[34][35] To commemorate The Colour and the Shape's tenth anniversary, it was reissued on July 10, 2007, with six additional tracks: the B-sides "Dear Lover" and "The Colour and the Shape", plus covers of Killing Joke's "Requiem", Gary Numan's "Down in the Park", Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" and Vanity 6's "Drive Me Wild".

"[21] Segal's review described the album as leagues ahead of other post-grunge acts: "The first album might have been a collection of loveable songs, but lacked the sheer visceral attack that thrills this time round," Segal wrote, calling it "[a]n attack that would have […] almost any other US rock band biting their nails in anguish and embarrassment.

"[21] Writing in The Guardian, Adam Sweeting found that the "glorious" album saw the band tempering their grunge sound with a more developed flair for pop songwriting.

[38] Christina Kelly of Rolling Stone was largely positive, although she singled out Norton's production as distracting: "Colour has a big, radio-ready, modern-rock sound.

"[41] Entertainment Weekly praised the band's growth, but criticized the sound, which journalist David Browne described as "like much current alt-rock: been there, grunged that.

"[17] In contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described that production as revolutionary: "everything here wound up defining the sound of post-grunge modern rock, and it remains as perhaps the best example of its kind.

Scoring the release a 5.8 out of 10, Stuart Berman stated, "The Colour and the Shape presented a true picture of the kind of group Grohl wanted to be in, had he not been sidetracked by the job of drumming for the biggest American rock band of the early 1990s [...] that band would turn out to be much more formulaically mall-punk than the Foos' torn 'n' frayed debut suggested.

[49] It also managed to reach the top ten in Australia,[50] Canada,[51] Greece,[52] Ireland,[52] New Zealand,[53] Sweden,[54] and the United Kingdom.

[58] All tracks are written by Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Pat Smear except where notedCredits adapted from The Colour and the Shape liner notes.