Foo Fighters - Concrete and Gold

Foo Fighters
Concrete and Gold
2017
Spotify

The Foo have not released an album since 2014's Sonic Highways which found the band travelling the country to record in iconic American studios for an HBO series. The results were pretty great fun rock songs, but the classics like "Everlong" and "Learn to Fly" still remain the best of the Foo Fighters. They seem like a band who have never made a misstep and instead have had hit record after hit record while making it look easy throughout. Nirvana seemed like a real struggle, trying to cope with Kurt Cobain's tortured artistry and still remain a band was likely enough strife for a lifetime for Dave Grohl so the Foo have always had a much more ease to their music. It's what made their early videos so great, they seemed like musicians who were extremely talented but didn't take themselves or what they were doing too serious. IN the end they are playing rock and roll so it should be fun right? Recent record however have been missing an element which is really essential to any great rock record, angst. While Sonic Highways worked, it felt like a gimmick almost as if Grohl had to trick himself into writing. The same sentiments extend to this album Concrete and Gold, the music is great but it feels like Grohl has to rip these lyrics out of himself just to get to base level. The first three tracks really cook musically, but these titles like "T-Shirt" and "Run" feel like exactly what is expected of the Foo Fighters rather than something from way down deep. It's almost like since Grohl played drums for Queens of the Stone Age his music has started sounding more and more like theirs, not the best thing.

In interviews Grohl has likened the album to half St. Peppers and half Motörhead, which really seems like something every rock and roll band with pop appeal always says. Yet Grohl never fails to deliver on the promise of the Foo Fighters, radio-ready rock with just enough appeal to keep the band successful and going. There are some experimental tracks like "Arrows", but only just enough to push the Foo's boundaries out just a touch. "Happy Ever After" feels so much like the Beatles' "Blackbird" but in kind of a icky way when you learn that Paul McCartney actually participated in the album. There are really no stakes to this album; Grohl doesn't get political, He doesn't really let us in and you are left wanting more than this album can ever deliver. It was never going to have the anthems that made the Foo Fighters so popular but you would at least like a whiff of that. If not perhaps something that pushes the band further than the middle. Even the heavily touted features like Boyz II Men, Justin TImberlake and Alison Mosshart seem to vanish in the mix. With as much stability and good will Dave Grohl has garnered in his nearing 30 years at the top of music He needs to try something new. He's done it before and believe me He will do it again, Concrete and Gold will just be a placeholder for now.

6.3 out of 10