Consistently Inconsistent

When Dave Grohl opens the kickoff track “The Pretender” on the latest and sixth Foo Fighters effort, Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, he plainly states that “what if I say I’m not like the others?” However, Grohl couldn’t have meant himself, but rather the compilation of unrelated songs on this album. While the overall effort comes out far better than most people were anticipating for a currently lackluster band, you can’t help but get the sense that all of the songs included were written and recorded for completely different albums. “”Pretender”” starts the album with a bang, chanting “”Are you ready! Are you ready!”” throughout the song, getting the listener absolutely hyped. However, second track “Let it Die” creates a whole new folky, campfire song atmosphere. The energy of the first song disappears, and the listener is suddenly listening to what feels like a completely different album.

ame The slower, blues-like sound of “Let it Die” continues in later album tracks such as standout “Stranger Things Have Happened,” but then the rock party mood resurfaces in bonus ending track “Once and For All”. After a collection of particularly slow songs, such as “Summer’s End” and noteworthy track “Statues”, the mood switch is surprising, but appreciated.

ame Echoes won the 2008 Grammy for Best Rock Album, and “”The Pretender”” won for Best Hard Rock Performance. Listening to the rest of the album, you are forced to wonder how any of the campfire-blues songs could be on the same album as anything categorized as hard rock.

The Foo Fighters should by no means stop making music, but maybe for the future they could try sticking to a few related sounds per album, instead of trying to encapsulate every genre into one.