Foo Fighters have done it again. Their latest record is one solid piece of musicianship, putting all of their various styles on full display. If you checked out their last studio album, In Your Honor, you know that Dave and Co. tried flexing their muscles acoustically. The first disc of that double album featured the rockers, whilst the second featured the not-so-rockers. It was a great experiment that was met with mixed reactions. Yours truly loved it, but a number of critics and fans felt that it was too long, too much, etc…the typical comments that are unleashed whenever a band tries doing a multi-part record.
Echoes… takes all of those aspirations and boils it down to one 12-track album this time around. Rather than splitting the acoustic and rock, Foo Fighters have fused them together, often within the same song. One of my favorite cuts, “Let It Die,” starts out as gentle as a kitten and ends with Dave screaming his throat out with the best of them. A number of the other songs also play a lot with dynamics, creating a terrific soundscape across the whole record. This is definitely an album that plays better listened to all the way through, from start to finish. There are a few songs that will work fine as stand-alone singles (namely the already-released “The Pretender”), but again, the overall dynamics of the album are fantastic taken in their entirety.
The biggest criticism of this album will probably be that it doesn’t rock hard enough. Granted, I absolutely love their earliest work. The Colour And The Shape will probably always be my favorite record (and one of the best rock albums ever), but I’m not interested in having them simply rehash their past. Echoes… does a terrific job of showcasing the headbangers while moving forward with some beautiful acoustic and even Americana flourishes. It’s a solid piece of work and I can’t wait to see the guys flesh some of these songs out live next week. Highly recommended.
