Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace

Foo Fighters: Dave Grohl (piano); Taylor Hawkins (background vocals); Nate Mendel.

Additional personnel: Kaki King, Pat Smear (guitar); Brantley Kearns Jr. (fiddle); Rami Jaffee (accordion); Drew Hester (percussion); Chris Shiflett. ECHOES, SILENCE, PATIENCE & GRACE, the Foo Fighters’ sixth effort, upholds the band’s allegiance to melody-heavy post-grunge power pop driven by roaring guitars and Dave Grohl’s fine songwriting. The Foos are aided by super-producer Gil Norton this time out (Norton also helped craft the group’s second, and arguably best, album, THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE). The result is a polished yet powerful outing that proves the Foos have earned their status as one of alternative rock’s most reliable acts. But while tunes like “The Pretender” pack a hard-rock wallop, the real surprises on ECHOES are the softer songs. The breezy, folky “Summer’s End,” for example, is a standout, as is Grohl’s solo acoustic performance on “Stranger Things Have Happened.” This isn’t to say the Foo Fighters have mellowed—the album contains as much amplified snarl as any of their others—but here the quieter moments rival the rockers, revealing a band whose intimate, earnest moments are as convincing as their head-banging ones. What the critics say… Rolling Stone (p.116) – Included in Rolling Stone’s “50 Top Albums of the Year 2007” — “\[T\]he Foo Fighters deliver winners…“ Spin (p.122) – 3 stars out of 5 — “Grohl has been a model of steady efficiency….‘Summer’s End’ is a breezy blast of California country rock…“ Entertainment Weekly (p.104) – “Like the greats, the Foos have found a way to create their own archetype, with an instinctive feel for what constitutes a killer song.” — Grade: A Q (p.87) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Each of these tracks makes the case for Foo Fighters’ horizons successfully expanding….Similarly, there’s a sophistication to the arrangements here, musical and vocal, not previously hinted at.“ Uncut (p.88) – 3 stars out of 5 — “\[T\]he excellent ‘Summer’s End’ is easy on the ear, easier still on the brain…“ Kerrang (Magazine) (p.46) – “\[T\]he Foo Fighters have managed to recapture the magic ingredient which magical music really needs — the art of sounding effortless.“ Q (Magazine) (p.84) – Ranked #12 in Q’s “The 50 Best Albums Of 2007” — “\[A\] big, brash effort that hollered all the way back to the cheap seats without sacrificing its humanity.”