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Herald Rating: * * * *
There's are good chest-beating songs on every album by the Foo Fighters. Jon Toogood from Shihad reckons Dave Grohl writes these sorts of songs intentionally - you know, ones they play during sporting highlights packages. And he might just be right. In the past there's been All My Life, My Hero, and Best Of You from the band's last album, In Your Honour, was the most blatant example yet.
So let's just say on Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, the band's sixth album, there are many goals and tries being scored and first single, The Pretender, makes you want to punch the air like you're watching Dougie score under the sticks against the Boks.
There are other examples too: But, Honestly starts gently, winds up and explodes, making it a sure concert hit, and the title of Come Alive speaks for itself.
Grohl was writing his own songs while in Nirvana but he obviously learnt a lot from Kurt Cobain because he knows how to write a fearsome anthem. The Foos' music has never been as intense and cathartic as Nirvana's, but Grohl's big, ballsy tunes are still inspiring and powerful.
However, because of a less than adventurous songwriting formula, the Foos often sound samey - In Your Honour and 2002's One By One suffered from that.
On Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace there's more of a range of tunes and it's not simply because of a mix of sonic assaults and acoustic elements. Statues, with Grohl on piano, a subtle accordion accompaniment, and vocals that sound more like a young Paul McCartney than "the nicest guy in rock", is the perfect example. It's a sweet song and one of the album's more mushy moments - hey, Grohl's a dad now.
Elsewhere there's the confessional Stranger Things Have Happened; the instrumental Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners; Summer's End has a head-nodding Neil Young heaviness to it that opens up into a big lush chorus; and Erase/Replace is the mangled mongrel of the bunch.
It's the Foo Fighters' best record since 1999's There Is Nothing Left to Lose and it's coming to an arena near you soon. Oh, and a sports show too.
Label: Sony BMG
Verdict: Grohl and co make arena rock, this time with added accordions and piano
