Far from the arena-rock destiny that now seems as if it had been inevitable, the beginnings of the Foo Fighters were quiet and personal. Dave Grohl had written songs throughout his tenure in Nirvana, playing guitar before shows but always too intimidated by Cobain’s writing to show him any of the songs. By the time Cobain died and Nirvana dissolved, Grohl had a bunch of songs stocked up, and in October of 1994, he decided to record the best ones. Responsible for every sound on the album aside from a guitar part on “X-Static” courtesy of the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli, Grohl described the experience as a frenetic, cathartic way to deal with the death of his friend. The whole thing was recorded in six days. Initially, he wanted to keep the project quiet, circulating tapes of the sessions amongst his friends and adopting the name Foo Fighters — taken from the slang term used by WWII pilots to describe UFOs — as to avoid the pressure that would be impossible to escape as a member of Nirvana making new music.

The issue of dealing with the legacy of Nirvana also came into play when it eventually came time to form a band to tour behind the self-titled debut when it saw official release in 1995. Though Grohl at first spoke with Krist Novoselic about joining his new band, they both agreed that it might attract ill will from fans who perceived it as them trying to carry on as Nirvana in a different guise. Instead, Grohl recruited Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith from the recently disbanded Sunny Day Real Estate, and rounded it all out with Pat Smear on guitar.

While this early lineup wouldn’t persist, and the circumstances of the recording of Foo Fighters far differed from any album that would follow, many of the core elements of what would come to define the Foo Fighters sound were already at work. Some could be tied back to Grohl’s time in Nirvana. As mentioned before, the quiet/loud formula championed by that band carried over into Foos songs like “I’ll Stick Around” and “Alone + Easy Target.” The guitars were still grungey and fuzzy, but more often propelled infectious, poppy melodies (in fact, Foo Fighters songs like “This Is A Call” and “Big Me” have a lightness that would rarely be glimpsed in their later work). Some things hadn’t quite developed yet. Grohl’s voice was gentler, not yet sure of itself, not yet too reliant on full-throated yells and rafter-seeking choruses, but already possessing power when it wanted to. The almost-psychedelic “Floaty” suggests directions that could’ve been, but weren’t. It’s not fair to call it mellow, exactly, but like There Is Nothing Left to Lose it exposes a side of Grohl unrelated to his usual rock persona, nor the occasionally flat-footed balladeer that would try to lead mellow Foo Fighters moments in the future.

Despite the traumatic experiences hanging over it, Foo Fighters has an appealingly offhand quality about it that would never be glimpsed on later Foos releases (despite Grohl’s claims to be attempting to reclaim it with Wasting Light). Uptempo tracks like the gleefully scuzzy “Watershed” and “Weenie Beenie” have are coated in lo-fi charm, while the moodier tracks (“X-Static,” “Exhausted”) have a beautifully inviting haze. And while Foo Fighters would go on to record many propulsive rock songs, few match the unbridled charge of “Good Grief,” one of the most underrated deep cuts in the Foos catalog. None of these songs needed big rock moves to burn their existence into your memory. That’s not to disparage the direction they eventually followed. Foo Fighters has the feel of a one-off, and while there are elements the band maybe should’ve carried over from these early recordings, it would’ve been a mistake to try to recapture the feel of them entirely. Foo Fighters’ debut is a singular experience, a sketch of what was to come by a man at a complicated crossroads in his life. Years later, its aesthetic has aged well, its version of ’90s guitar rock more related to what contemporary indie or alternative artists revive than the version favored on later Foos outings. Aside from that, though, it stands as one of Grohl’s best collections of songs, revealing more of itself the more time you spend within its fuzziness.