Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace

Genre rock Publisher RCA Records External Links Official Foo Fighters Website Official RCA Records Website

It is hard to believe but it has been 10 years since the Dave Grohl-led Foo Fighters released the fantastic The Colour and The Shape. That release was a breath of fresh air which was almost the perfect rock record. Songs like "Monkey Wrench," "Everlong," and "My Hero" dominated modern rock radio back then and those tracks still are great to listen to now.

Unfortunately, the Foos have never followed that 1997 release with another classic CD. Sure, nearly all of the band's recordings since then have been better-than-average but Grohl and company's signature muscular soft-loud-louder sound started to become too familiar with each subsequent release. The band's previous album In Your Honor did mix things up a bit as it was a double disc offering with separate electric and acoustic CDs. Nonetheless, it failed to resonate with most fans.

So, it was back to the drawing board for the Foo Fighters and they decided to reunite with legendary producer Gil Norton who produced The Colour and The Shape. The result of that collaboration is the new recording entitled Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace.

Well, is the magic back? Partly. ESP&G has its moments of balls-to-the-walls rockers and even a few welcome slower numbers but it also finds the band revisiting the past a little too often. That means the times when Grohl mixes things up is when ESP&G shines best.

The songs "Let It Die" and "Come Alive" are two of the better rockers on the recording as both show how tight of a unit Grohl, guitarist Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel, and drummer Taylor Hawkins have become. Both tracks start off with long acoustic beginnings but they gradually build up to a point where electric guitars wail, drums pound, and Grohl's screams mix together flawlessly.

There are also a few nice diversions as Grohl tries a few softer songs including the acoustic instrumental "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" and the piano-and-strings dominated closing ballad "Home." The former track is most notable because it features a cameo from guitar legend Kaki King. Interestingly though, his guitar playing along with Grohl on the track is some of the most understated, yet impressive of the entire CD.

ESP&G does flounder a bit in the middle as songs like "Stranger Things Have Happened" and "Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)" are not particularly distinctive. Also, tracks like "Long Road To Ruin" and "Erase/Replace" sound like cover versions of previous Foo songs from other albums but they are not. Sure, they are halfway decent rockers but there is nothing new here.

That is not to say that familiarity is a bad thing though. The opening track, "The Pretender," is the Foo Fighters at their rocking best. The song is not one bit ground breaking but the band's frantic performance more than makes up of that. Grohl's passionate vocals and Hawkins' impressive drumming make it one of the best rock singles of the year. If only ESP&G had more unforgettable tracks like that, it might have been almost as great as The Colour and the Shape.