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AlbumREVIEW: 'Saint Cecilia" by Foo Fighters
At this point in rock music history, the Foo Fighters have become an institution, a far cry from their first roll-out as a post-grunge, post-hardcore, post-Cobain band that produced the still-unbeatable self-titled debut and power-pop classic The Color and the Shape
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At this point in rock music history, the Foo Fighters have become an institution, a far cry from their first roll-out as a post-grunge, post-hardcore, post-Cobain band that produced the still-unbeatable self-titled debut and power-pop classic The Color and the Shape.
Foo-leader Dave Grohl and his crew of merry rockers churn out the kind of arena-filling choruses that cast as much sneer as they do heart-throbbing power. They also represent 'Rock' to fist-pumping rock-dads and moms who just want to unwind after a hard day's work.
There's always some sense of excitement about their new material, but at the end of the day, this is a band where the fans are hardcore-casual, wanting to pop beers and sing along to surefire radio hits, the kind that the Foos churn out with abandon.
Their last album, 2014's so-so Sonic Highways, appeared alongside a HBO documentary chronicling the creation and writing of every one of its 8 tracks, each of which was supposedly inspired by a different US city. That pretty much sums up the Foos in a nutshell ' less about the actual music at this point, but heavy on the 'it's all about the music, man.'
On their new mini-album Saint Cecilia EP (Roswell Records), the band comes up with something that puts the focus squarely back on the music. Well, almost.
The free digital release (physical editions to follow) also comes up with a note from Grohl, detailing the EP's inception and recording process and how its humanity relates to the recent attacks in Paris attacks. Grohl played drums in Queens of the Stone Age, a band whose leader, Josh Homme, is the drummer for the Eagles of Death Metal. It was at an Eagles of Death Metal concert that some 97 people were slaughtered by terrorists. Homme, however, was not with the band at that particular concert.
It's a good summation of Grohl's ability to conceptualize and package his music with a sense of humanity. It's also why for the past ten years or so, the Foo Fighters has felt more like a brand than a real band.
Every album since 2000's One by One seemingly represented something, but ask most hardcore music fans about the best and most human Foos record and the majority will pick any of the 3 pre-2000 albums the band released before they managed to fill up stadiums.
Saint Cecilia draws back to show just how well Grohl has grown both as a musician and as a lyricist, but also how impersonal his approach has felt the more he hones his craft.
Recorded almost live at the hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin, Texas, the record does sound relatively looser than recent Foo Fighters albums, though still polished overall with a crisp quality and a 'this is analogue' sheen that worked well on the last two Foo Fighters albums, especially 2011's strong Wasting Light.
The titular opener is the kind of mid-tempo soul-beater the Foos can churn out in their sleep ' complete with uplifting lyrics such as 'Bring me some healing/ Saint Cecilia carry me home to your house'.
'Sean' is a speedy, barely 2-minute, country-punk song with twisty melodic turns and Bluesy guitar flourishes. What these two openers have in their favor is a sense of spontaneity in their catchy-but-not-too-catchy melodies. The instrumentation also sounds unrehearsed ' evidence of how tight and in-tune the Foos machine is as a live band.
The record's best is 'Savior Breath' ('Save your breath' get it?), which is both faster and looser that 'Sean'. It's a giddy nod to Grohl's punk rock/Hardcore past embodied inside his current rockstar streak, with crunchy bluesy riffs and constant syncopations between the instruments. The pop-punk element is there too, in a chorus that harkens back to Grohl's early, simplistic compositions.
The dull 'Iron Rooster' is the album's worst moment. It is a plodding dad-rock track with an acoustic touch that feels inconsequential in its composition and lyrics. 'The Neverending Sigh' is powerhouse Foos track complete with a torch-carrying refrain and shifting dynamics.
Saint Cecilia EP is a well-recorded, well-written record by the Foo Fighters. It's slightly better than the band's recent releases but only by a stretch. At this point, that's just not enough.
