Product description
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Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience and Grace - CD
.co.uk
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Dave Grohls sixth album fronting post-grunge rockers Foo
Fighters finds him softening his game somewhat, although not in
the manner of 2005s In Your Honour, which countered the Foos
stadium metal moves with a second disc of acoustic songs. Rather,
Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace sees Grohl taking cues from
his beloved Led Zeppelin, penning a record that incorporates
muscular rock shapes with piano ballads ("Statues"), picked
acoustic moments ("Come Alive") and free-wheeling, classic-tinged
jams like "Summers End"--a song about romantic dalliances in the
"sweet Virginia countryside". While its undoubtedly a mature
sort of record for the Foo Fighters, however, thats not to say
that their edge has been blunted. With the band reunited with
producer Gil Norton, whose skill for quiet/loud dynamics did a
lot for 1997s The Colour and the Shape, tracks like "The
Pretender" and "Erase/Replace" are muscular, dynamic rockers that
balance subtle, atmospheric moments with epic bursts of rage. The
track "Cheer up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)", meanwhile, feels
like a jibe at the emo hordes whove tried, but failed, to
dislodge Grohls crown. Its the sound of a band growing into
middle age gracefully. --Louis Pattison
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Review
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Upstaging Madonna at Live Earth, rocking out with half of Queen
at Hyde Park, throwing down heartfelt notes to trapped miners,
it's all in a day's work for your friendly neighbourhood Dave
Grohl. Hell, this guy can even pull his mum up onstage in front
of thousands of festival-goers and still look cool.
Yet it's very easy to overlook what the former Nirvana sticksman
has achieved musically over the last two years. The Foos are one
of the biggest bands in the world right now but that's not to say
they haven't had their critics. 2005's, In Your Honor, was
decried by many as an exercise in self-indulgence. So in an
effort to defy non-believers, the band have sandwiched that
album's finer ingredients into 12 eclectic tracks for their sixth
album.
It kicks off with a huge stadium rock belter. "The Pretender" is
your typical trademark Foos anthem; packed with the same hefty
punch that made "Best Of You" and "Monkey Wrench" such classics.
The Kurt and Courtney inspired "Let It Die", is an
acoustic/electric number which morphs into stabbing guitars and
Grohl's raucous yelp as he screeches: 'Why do you have to go and
let it die!'. It's a familiar formula, but one the Foos are
masters at.
Unfortunately when Grohl et al do delve into pastures new it
doesn't quite work. When the charismatic frontman kicks up a
country storm on "Summer's End", it falls painfully short of the
mark.
The same can be said for some of Echoes' acoustic numbers. The
piano-driven ''Statues' sits uncomfortably with the album's finer
rock moments while closer 'Home' may come on like "Next Year''s
distant cousin, but it plods along lessly. It's only when
Grohl teams up with jazz guitarist Kaki King for the finger
plucking instrumental "The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners" -
based on one of the trapped miners' request for an iPod full of
Foo Fighter tunes - that we find ourselves applauding their
experimental side.
In Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace the Foos may have certainly
tried to branch out and defy their critics. But there's no
getting away from the fact that rocking out is what Dave Grohl is
best at. --Damian Jones
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