Foo Fighters – Concrete and Gold

Dave Grohl has always been somewhat annoying. That is, if you’re smart enough to see through his fake facade he puts up for people. Grohl likes to pay lip service to his supposed punk rock and DIY roots whenever it’s convenient for him, whenever it makes him look good, but most of the time he’s mainstreamed himself into one of the safest, blandest, yet biggest rock stars in the world today and has turned his band the Foo Fighters into just another “bro-band,” ya know, for the beer chuggin’, butt-rockin’ bros, brah. If you criticize Dave Grohl or Foo Fighters all he or a fan has do is bring up “Nirvana.” Yeah, it’s pretty nauseating.

Foo Fighters, needless to say, have legions of fans that still buy their records and pay big bucks to see them play live no matter what. They’re like robots. Nothing will change this pattern, especially with this latest release, Concrete and Gold. There’s no ground covered that hasn’t been covered before, but when you compare this album to Foo Fighters’ competition, that’s when you start to gain some perspective, you start to understand Foo Fighters’ real appeal with their fans. In a mainstream sense, there just isn’t all that much competition for the Foo Fighters at their size and level. They’re competing against so many artists that aren’t even playing real instruments, that aren’t in the rock ‘n’ roll genre at all, and that’s probably why so many folks consider Foo Fighters such a huge deal. It’s only the crumbs of rock ‘n’ roll out there right now and Foo Fighters have the most crumbs, so they automatically win. Alcohol probably helps, too.

Concrete and Gold is very smooth, slickly produced from beginning to end, a top-notch production. Everything sounds extremely deliberate; absolutely no accidents here. The album starts off strong, very front-loaded on purpose, but there’s a weak middle and quasi-weak ending. A few 6’s and 7’s, even an 8, but no 9’s or 10’s, the rest are all 5’s or below as far as song ratings go on this album. The songwriting could use some work, very stifled and predictable. The vocals are very muddled at times to where you cannot understand them at all, as there are way too many effects being used.

To me, Concrete and Gold is like an Adam Sandler movie. I sat through it once and it was okay, but there’s probably no way in hell I’m going to sit through it again.

Foo Fighters
Concrete and Gold
[RCA]