Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 24/09/07
Label: Roswell/Sony BMG

Everyone loves the Foo Fighters and with good reason. The last 12 years have seen Dave Grohl's post-Nirvana hobby project become rock's most reliable source of comic rage, feelgood anthems and stadium fun; rock gods who never come close to taking themselves too seriously, too busy having a good time to bore everyone with experimentation and emotional baggage. Always ready with a knowing nod and a goofy grin, Grohl & co are now the must see band for barrelling riffs and a good time.

All of which makes sixth album, the thoughtfully titled "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace", something of a risky move. At first glance it may seem like just another Foo Fighters record. Single, "The Pretender" does what all good Foo Fighters songs should, careering from quiet to loud to vein-popping, guaranteeing to have any stadium pogoing as one. "Let It Die" and "Erase/Replace" confirm it as the trick that just keeps on giving, yet for all the familiarity, this stands as a daringly brave record.

The first clues that "Echoes…" marks a major sea change in Foo Fighter standard operating procedure comes with the realisation that the above mentioned scream-alongs aren't fun. They aren't comic. They aren't knowing. They won't come with a self-depreciating video and they don't leave you second guessing whether they mean it or not. They're raging, bitter and make no apologies for it. There's a melancholy that's as big as the guitars and just as flooring.

The second hint is in the running order. For a while now Dave Grohl, the man who lest we forget gave us the lump in the throat that is "Everlong", has suspected that he may have more to offer the world than volume and humility alone. He tried to go there with the last album, 2005's two disc opus "In Your Honor", but bottled it last minute, banishing his sensitive side to the second acoustic disc so it wouldn't get in the way of the proper Foo Fighters tracks. Here, it's front and centre, firmly holding its own.

Their shouty charge may have made the Foo Fighters a household name, but here it's the anguish and introspection of the intimate acoustic tracks which screams the loudest. The sweetly bruised "Come Alive" and pleading "Stranger Things Have Happened" are both profoundly sad. Meanwhile, closing piano lament "Home" is surely amongst the starkest tracks Dave Grohl has ever committed to tape.

Maybe being reunited with "The Colour And The Shape" producer Gil Norton has instilled the confidence needed for Grohl to fully realise his songwriting potential. Maybe it was inevitable he'd get there eventually. Either way, there's no getting away from the fact that the goofy guy who used to play drums for Nirvana just made a classic album.

    by Dan Gennoe