Concrete & Gold -Digi-

One of the best Foo Fighters albums ever! Some of the memorable songs on this are: - 1) Run 2) The Sky is a Neighbourhood 3) La Dee Da and my favourite 4) Arrows. Definitely worth the buy!

Concrete and Gold is a departure by the Foo's from the theme and style of Sonic Highways, a different album altogether in fact, than anything Dave & Co. have produced before.The production on the recordings is fine.At first listen I could see what so many people have complained about.I discovered thankfully if the album is given a listen on good speakers/headphones/earphones at a lower volume, it shines, no fuzziness, raspiness or distortion.Just thought I'd put that out there first.As per the style of Foo Fighters songs so far Concrete and Gold has moments you'd hear a pin drop, and bursts of guitar & vocal -laden chaos that only after several listens can you choose to follow the vocals or another element of that chaos, but it is a calculated, reined-in chaos.Catchy songs such as The Sky Is a Neighborhood guarantee the album won't fade into obscurity, a number promised to land in the charts, and some heartfelt songs, melancholic, reflective, angry, hopeful - everything fans love about the Foos.With 8 albums in the rear-view you can always be sure Foo Fighters are here to stay.And while the music industry is a hungry, greedy beast, Dave & Co. manage to feed the monster while slipping some genuine dishes under its radar, too.When the price of success has been Learn To Fly, Break Out and a few other mainstream, almost 'pop-rock' releases, Foos in their heart are rock-metal.Concrete and Gold is another welcomed addition to the Foo Fighters catalogue.Four stars!

If you only buy one Foo Fighters album, make this it. Like all their work it is full of uplifting hooks and big choruses, but here the content is balanced (the Greatest Hits album, by contrast, becomes wearying in its similarity). At times - for instance The Sky is a Neighborhood, and Sunday Rain - you feel that The Beatles, in their Abbey Road period, should receive royalties. No bad thing though, and the results are delivered with aplomb. Make It Right has elements of Led Zeppelin; there are snatches of Motorhead in places, and Run sounds like ?Journey? So it wins no prizes for originality, but sounds good, and that's the main thing.

There is something wrong with this recording. It sounds muffled and muddy. No highs or lows. Deliberate I guess but ruins this album for me. A couple of ok songs, but the sound recording technique has spoiled everything.

I really need to to give this more listens, as at the moment, it's not grabbing me like a new Foo release should. During the first play i was sooo close to even skipping on a track as I didn't think it good enough. Can't remember which one right now, but I was wondering if this is one of the best they chose over other potential songs for a new album, the ones they rejected must have been really poor. Underwhelmed, that's how I feel so far. Hopefully my attitude towards it will change with more play, but right now, i@m searching through older cds to play in the car for the long drives home . . . . . C'mon Dave & chums, up your game next time please.

The Foo Fighters are one of the best live rock bands in the world. They have a massive number of hits, over a large back catalogue to pick from, for these live concerts. I must admit though, the last 'concept' album did not really add to that catalogue. It was a clever idea and made a good series to watch whilst I was flying to Florida for my hols a few years ago. It did not make a stand out album, good but not excellent. Also probably only 1 or at the most 2 tracks make it onto the live setlist.Now we have a new album and we are back to a traditional, collection of songs album. The last one of these albums was Wasting Light. I have a soft spot for that album, it came along at a particularly defined moment in my life. However the most important thing with that album was, it had a good percentage of great songs. Now on to Concrete and Gold....ahh.Okay, it is not a bad album. I get the feeling that Dave and Co wanted to experiment a little with different styles and themes. However, alas, it does not really have many tracks that add to the glorious existing back catalogue. I suspect maybe 2 of these tracks will make regularish appearances on the live set list, after the latest tour i.e. The Sky is a Neighbourhood and La De Daa. The rest are good but just not the anthemic you kind of expect from the Foos.So if a Foos fan, definitely add this to your collection. Just expect it not to be regularly played in its entirety. Your setlist will probably just pick the two stand-out songs stated above.