The nicest man in rock…it’s a pretty strange title that if you ask me, but it’s a title that’s been thrust upon one Mr Dave Grohl. In recent years, the former NIRVANA sticks-man turned FOO FIGHTERS visionary has been generally viewed upon as a top bloke by virtually everyone in the music business (The guy recently left a $2,000 tip on a bar tab, told a guy to fuck off out of his show for fighting in the crowd, not wanting any of his fans hurt and despite having a broken leg, had a throne specially made for him to sit on, on stage, so that they could still play shows in his cast) but, it has to be asked, does being a really nice bloke get you an automatic pass on your albums? Everyone knows in the past, yes, the Foo Fighters have churned out several absolute banger's, but in recent years that form has dipped substantially…their 2015 thank-you to the fans and dedication to the Paris attacks, free to download (damn he is a nice bloke) “Saint Cecilia” EP wasn’t anything truly memorable musically, while their last album, 2014’s conceptual “Sonic Highways” suffered with the same issues…so we look upon their newest album, “Concrete And Gold” with a sense of trepidation…is this 24-carat or will it kiss the curb? Let’s find out…
We open up with “T-Shirt” and at just over a minute here we have another album with a little intro track…on face value it’s a bit of a request in ways, as if Grohl doesn’t want to be lauded with all of this praise, he’s too down to earth for all that…like he’s been there and worn the t-shirt so to speak, let’s just focus on the important stuff…it’s done sweetly , semi-acoustic, bursting to life at the tail end of the track, albeit briefly, before we transition into the album’s first single “Run”. The acoustic tones delicately continue into the song and it sounds like we’re going to get a power ballad of sorts, intensifying subtly to what you feel may be an emotional chorus…but oh no, the tone here is totally unexpected! It’s riff heavy, distorted and savage, Grohl has a raspy anger to his voice and there’s some proper weight behind this, the flurry at the end particularly enjoyable, but it comes and goes in waves, almost bipolar in presentation…and interesting track.
“La Dee Da” has a similarly raucous tone for the most part, especially as the track rips into life over the chorus…it’s incredibly raw and punk-inspired, the rough around the edges appeal of the track giving it plenty of character, this is harking back to their garage band roots and when it gets going it’s incredibly fun this…sadly however, most of the fun stops here. “Dirty Water” has some wonderful harmonies, the female backing vocals giving the already soft track a blissful tone…that is until it’s halfway point and it jump-scares you with some surging guitar…this would be better suited as a closing track to be totally honest but mid-album it feels…lost. “Arrows” and then “Sunday Rain” suffer greatly from repetition…the former does have a classic climatic Foo’s feel, the latter is quite frankly boring and at over six minutes, drags out far longer than it deserves to, before we finish up on the title track…while it is sweeping and to a degree dramatic, it fails to capture any real interest and as a result, the album sort of just, fizzles out. The concept of concrete and gold is quite simple; it’s the rough and ready of Grohl’s rock back ground meeting with the more polished approach of a pop-record producer (Greg Kurstin) and while intentions were good creatively, it merely comes across as two separate albums trying to coexist on the same disk space and sadly, they don’t gel well…not that it matters…while I’m being negative, Grohl just helped an old lady across the street, rescued a cat from a tree and did some recycling…the nice bastard that he is…[4]
We open up with “T-Shirt” and at just over a minute here we have another album with a little intro track…on face value it’s a bit of a request in ways, as if Grohl doesn’t want to be lauded with all of this praise, he’s too down to earth for all that…like he’s been there and worn the t-shirt so to speak, let’s just focus on the important stuff…it’s done sweetly , semi-acoustic, bursting to life at the tail end of the track, albeit briefly, before we transition into the album’s first single “Run”. The acoustic tones delicately continue into the song and it sounds like we’re going to get a power ballad of sorts, intensifying subtly to what you feel may be an emotional chorus…but oh no, the tone here is totally unexpected! It’s riff heavy, distorted and savage, Grohl has a raspy anger to his voice and there’s some proper weight behind this, the flurry at the end particularly enjoyable, but it comes and goes in waves, almost bipolar in presentation…and interesting track.
“La Dee Da” has a similarly raucous tone for the most part, especially as the track rips into life over the chorus…it’s incredibly raw and punk-inspired, the rough around the edges appeal of the track giving it plenty of character, this is harking back to their garage band roots and when it gets going it’s incredibly fun this…sadly however, most of the fun stops here. “Dirty Water” has some wonderful harmonies, the female backing vocals giving the already soft track a blissful tone…that is until it’s halfway point and it jump-scares you with some surging guitar…this would be better suited as a closing track to be totally honest but mid-album it feels…lost. “Arrows” and then “Sunday Rain” suffer greatly from repetition…the former does have a classic climatic Foo’s feel, the latter is quite frankly boring and at over six minutes, drags out far longer than it deserves to, before we finish up on the title track…while it is sweeping and to a degree dramatic, it fails to capture any real interest and as a result, the album sort of just, fizzles out. The concept of concrete and gold is quite simple; it’s the rough and ready of Grohl’s rock back ground meeting with the more polished approach of a pop-record producer (Greg Kurstin) and while intentions were good creatively, it merely comes across as two separate albums trying to coexist on the same disk space and sadly, they don’t gel well…not that it matters…while I’m being negative, Grohl just helped an old lady across the street, rescued a cat from a tree and did some recycling…the nice bastard that he is…[4]
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