New Foo Fighters Album released

stimpsonslostson

"Concrete and Gold" was released recently. I listened to it a few times over the past few days.
Firstly- I like the Foo Fighters. I think they're one of the best (radio friendly) rock acts out there. I've seen them live loads of times and think that their back catalogue is superb. 
Unfortunately I must confess to being underwhelmed by this offering. I think the songs are solid (if unspectacular) but I really dislike the production.
Several of the songs have a weird distorted sound to them, particularly on the bass and vocals, that I don't think sounds great. 



Anyone else got any thoughts? I know the Foo Fighters seem to be (unexpectedly) divisive here... 

Bidley

It's a natural progression to my ears. They've been getting more and more unremarkable as the years go by.

Cirrus

It's just an unfortunate reality. You tread the same ground enough, no matter how good you are, some people are going to roll their eyes eventually. I think bands are more interesting when they're still finding themselves or evolving somehow, once they've worked everything out and know exactly how they sound it's not as exciting and I think Foos have been there for a while now, though I still enjoy a lot of their songs individually.

lustycourtier

It's a standard FF record with a few good songs. The production is awful, why they have to get pop producers I. To try to change things I'll never know. 

stickyfiddle

I'm a bit meh on it. I loved the last 2 but I think the recording processes for those forced them to go hard on songwriting before they rolled any tapes, which had a massive impact on the song-ness of the songs. With this it sounds like it was a much more "born in the studio" kinda record, which is shame.

rsvmark

Different strokes etc. Sonic Highways for me was not their finest hour..... Initially but is really growing now. This one I liked immediately and I find the production a pleasant departure from Butch Vig. Not that I don't like his stuff but sometimes a change is as good as a rest

andyp

I've only listened to it once so far, but I really liked it straight off the bat. I am a huge fan of their early stuff as that was new when I was leaving school sort of age. I've generally found that the more recent the album the less I like it, until now. I'm still a big Foos fan though and Grohl is without a doubt one of my absolute heroes.

It sounded a bit more "grown-up" to me, but not in a bad way.

This came up on my YouTube feed too...

Cirrus

In some ways I wish he'd drum more. I mean, yeah, I'm a fucking nobody and he can do whatever he wants, hats off to him for what he's achieved... but I love his drumming so much. The world needs more Dave Grohls.

mrkb

Finding it average, apart from the stupid endings (random piano playing, inaudible talking bit,etc) which are annoying.

andyp

Cirrus said:

In some ways I wish he'd drum more. I mean, yeah, I'm a fucking nobody and he can do whatever he wants, hats off to him for what he's achieved... but I love his drumming so much. The world needs more Dave Grohls.

Totally agree!

His drumming really is incredible.

TTBZ

Cirrus said:

In some ways I wish he'd drum more. I mean, yeah, I'm a fucking nobody and he can do whatever he wants, hats off to him for what he's achieved... but I love his drumming so much. The world needs more Dave Grohls.

Yeah agreed. At his best behind a kit.

Octahedron

The only thing I am finding underwhelming is the opening of the album! T-Shirt is so plain... but then Run does its thing, that mellow intro and then builds in and then the record just takes off from when Run hits its peak really. 

Honestly, when I first heard T-Shirt I was like oh shit what happened... And then I heard the rest of it. Was an instant hit from me. There's not a song I skip on it. Even T-Shirt has grown on me. 

Concrete & Gold, Sky is a Neighborhood... man those songs sound fucking huge. Dave's not wrong man... I dig what the guy does all day every day. 

Yeah, I appreciate him as a drummer too, in Nirvana and QOTSA. But I also love Foos so... 

They're playing in Australia next year, early next year - just saw Weezer are lined up as the opener for the stadium gigs. I really wanna go but I can't afford it. Sucks!!!