World famous and well renowned alt-rock and hard rock group Foo Fighters are back with their latest album, Concrete and Gold, following the generally positively reviewed Sonic Highways from 2014. The band has been known to sell out arenas and cause sweaty adrenaline filled mosh pits aplenty ever since their formation in the nineties, and their influence over alt rock as a whole is formidable.
First, we must acknowledge that if this record was a man, it would be a chubby mid-forties man tending to a barbecue and talking to his other middle-aged men about golf clubs and meat, because this record is a dad. This is dad rock, no avoiding it; the guitars are heavy but not too heavy, the song structures are unadventurous, and lyrically the record is more focused on what sounds cool rather than having a meaning. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl is himself a dad at forty-eight, so this should come as no surprise. Foo’s have been making records since 1994, so many of their fans are probably dad’s today.
While there is nothing wrong with middle-aged dads in their forties, it does mean the album is stuck in its comfort zone. Crunchy guitars, repetitive base, Grohl’s signature blend of shouting and singing, these things aren’t ‘full in force’ here. They are more ‘full in keeping everything in order’. Tracks like Dirty Water and The Sky Is A Neighbourhood prove that the Foo’s still know how to pace a song and how to deliver a great chorus.
Standout track Run has a remarkable sense of momentum and is the hardest track on the album with its shrill guitars and Grohl screeching until it delivers you to a blissfully melodic chorus. The track Make It Right sounds almost like The Beatles. (Spoiler: there is a Beatle on this record.)
This album has a bizarre set of celebrity cameo’s in it who do not contribute stylistically but are there just because they were hanging around the studio that day. Justin Timberlake is in Make It Right’s warped backing vocals, Boyz II Men lead Shaun Stockman features in the slightly boring title track, and yes, Paul McCartney is on drums for the worst track on the album, Sunday Rain. The song would be mediocre, but it’s fatal mistake is having the drummer Taylor Hawkins sing, who isn’t a terrible vocalist but compared to Grohl, it is like putting the local choirs lead tenor against Freddie Mercury.
Foo Fighters are a band which, at their best, create an infectious energy and primality in their songs which all have choruses that urge to be screamed rather than sung. There are touches of gold but overall this album is as dull as concrete.
Daniel Cox