{"id":16103,"date":"2017-09-22T17:50:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T22:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=16103"},"modified":"2018-04-02T12:03:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T17:03:48","slug":"online-exclusive-foo-fighters-concrete-and-gold-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/09\/22\/online-exclusive-foo-fighters-concrete-and-gold-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Exclusive: Foo Fighters “Concrete and Gold” Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week the Foo Fighters released their ninth studio album, \u201cConcrete and Gold.\u201d It manages to take the best parts from their previous albums, \u201cWasting Light\u201d and \u201cSonic Highways\u201d and combine them into a concise, rewarding rock album.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foos finished their eighth album, \u201cSonic Highways\u201d in 2014 and went on a world tour to support it. In summer 2015, frontman Dave Grohl fell off the stage during a performance in Sweden, breaking his leg.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he went to the back, got it wrapped up and finished the 26 song set. They continued the tour for the rest of the year with Grohl sitting atop a throne to keep his leg up. <\/span><\/p>\n

After the tour ended the band decided to take a long hiatus. During this time, Grohl became a recluse and lived in isolation for a while. During this time, he wrote the lead single off of \u201cConcrete and Gold\u201d called \u201cRun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating the song gave the band a spark and they ended their hiatus to begin work on the album. <\/span><\/p>\n

The band then did something unorthodox. They worked with Greg Kurstin, a producer for artists such as Adele and Sia. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is similar to what their friends in Queens of the Stone Age did last month with the release of \u201cVillains,\u201d teaming with pop producer Mark Rosen.<\/span><\/p>\n

The addition of a pop producer has led to some changes, including multi-layered vocals and more harmonies than usual on a Foo Fighters record. The songs are more consise and there\u2019s a good funk vibe going throughout the album. <\/span><\/p>\n

The album manages to balance the pop and funk influence with the Foos typical hard rock sound and makes a very interesting sound, especially on standout tracks like \u201cLa Dee Da\u201d and \u201cMake It Right.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet on \u201cHappily Ever After (Zero Hour)\u201d the band channels both the sound from their 1995 debut album and The Beatles to make a great downer ballad. <\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of The Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney joins the band on drums and Taylor Hawkins does vocals on \u201cSunday Rain,\u201d a song that is reminiscent of some of John Lennon\u2019s solo work. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sky is a Neighborhood\u201d is the second single off the album and is a fantastic track. The use of synths along with the lyrics give the song a moody feel similar to recent work from The Black Keys.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lead single \u201cRun\u201d is the highlight of the album. It follows the typical Foo Fighters roadmap, starting sweet and soft before blasting you with sound a killer chorus. It\u2019s message of waking up and running your own life makes it seem like a thematic sequel to \u201cWasting Light\u2019s\u201d single \u201cWalk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During the lead up to the album Grohl described it as \u201cSgt. Peppers meets Motorhead.\u201d While it doesn\u2019t live up to that, it does a good job of paying tribute to their influences while keeping the sound their own.<\/span><\/p>\n

With \u201cConcrete and Gold\u201d the Foo Fighters have ventured just far enough outside their comfort zone to create some new tracks that change the formula and make the band feel fresh, without any gimmicks such as touring the countryside.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Henry Wolski
\n<\/strong>Executive Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the Foo Fighters released their ninth studio album, \u201cConcrete and Gold.\u201d It manages to take the best parts from their previous albums, \u201cWasting Light\u201d and \u201cSonic Highways\u201d and combine them into a concise, rewarding rock album. The Foos finished their eighth album, \u201cSonic Highways\u201d in 2014 and went on a world tour to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":16104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2104,2144,3],"tags":[2139,2000,73,38,2141,74,2140],"class_list":["post-16103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-music-entertainment","category-tartan-news","tag-foo-fighters","tag-henry-wolski","tag-music","tag-online","tag-online-exclusive","tag-reviews","tag-rock"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Dave-Ghrol.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-4bJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16103"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16122,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103\/revisions\/16122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}