Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
RCA Records (9/25/07)
Hard rock / Alternative
Long gone are the days when Dave Grohl crafted quirky, catchy anthems like the ones on the Foo Fighters’ 1995 self-titled debut. Over the next 12 years, through sheer force of will and talent, Grohl turned from Nirvana drummer to frontman of one of the best hard rock bands on the scene today.
From its impressive body of work, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is bound to be the band’s most focused and mature effort to date. It’s as if Grohl knew that 2005’s In Your Honor was a little too bloated and overreaching, and so the band aimed to craft an album that attempted all the bombast and beauty of its two-disc predecessor and condense it to its basest form.
And that’s what the Foo Fighters do time and time again, with tracks like “The Pretenderâ€, “Let It Die†and “Erase/Replaceâ€â€”each of which is explosive in its hook-laden delivery. “The Pretender†creates a false sense of security with a mellow, acoustic drone before drummer Taylor Hawkins destroys the moment and the band unleashes the intense guitar interplay. There’s a thick riff that Grohl pulls out mid-way through the song that’s destined to become a rock classic, which makes this song actually eclipse “Best of You†(off the Honor set) as one of the band’s hardest rocking anthems.
“Let It Die†attempts the same trick as the opener, but Grohl actually draws the melody out a lot longer, making for a much fuller experience.
The tempo builds with each verse of “Erase/Replace†before the crescendo of the chorus acts as a release; a slow, deliberate delivery each time. In this case, the beauty comes in the bridges later in the song.
It’s not all hard rock. “Long Road to Ruin†is a fantastic, catchy modern rock number, while “Come Alive†perfectly builds in its intensity, starting off as a haunting ballad before exploding into pure rock fury by the end. “Summer’s End†could find a home on a classic rock or Top 40 radio station, and then there’s the bluegrass-influenced instrumental, “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners. The piano-driven “Statuesâ€, and the acoustic “Stranger Things Have Happened†and “But Honestly“ (two of the album’s strongest tracks) close out an impressive set. The hits, varied though they may be, just keep coming.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is a slow-burn album; aside from “The Pretenderâ€, “But Honestly†and perhaps “Erase/Replaceâ€, nothing immediately jumps up and grabs your attention. But after a spin or two, it’s clear that the Foo Fighters crafted a classic album. Everything is twice what it should be: the melody twice as haunting, the rock twice as bombastic. By the time the piano ballad “Home†pops up to close the set, you can’t help but shake your head at exactly what this album represents and want to immediately start it again. When all is said and done, this is bound to become “the album” for the band.
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