So I’ve decided to do a series concerning my five favourite albums, this is the first in the series.
5. Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace
First things first, this album kind of has to be on the list, seeing as I do not by any means like this band anymore. Regardless this album has made a huge impact on my life being the first album I bought and the one that spurned my interest in music generally. It’s very diverse, but the overall tone of it contributes to everything about it. The album’s cover is in a neutral, vintage black and white colouring. It builds this feeling of uniformity and boring confinement. This goes directly against the images within the album’s lyric booklet which holds contradictory images, such as an umbrella with a lit stick of dynamite for the handle. Something that provides little protection but is useless against something it has no power against. Just like the imagery contradicts the colouration of the album, the music also contradicts the uniformity of the world, which is, as we all know, rebellion – one of the most common themes in music. The lyrics from “The Pretender,” one of the more notable songs by the band, says, “What if I say that I’ll never surrender? So who are you?” Dave Grohl, frontman, shouts these words with the fervor of a mob ready to throw molotov cocktails at a line of police with riot shields, batons, and tear gas. The album starts out with a heavy, overdriven alt/rock sound, that slowly turns into a softer alternative sound near the end. The distortion in the guitars is toned way down and Grohl’s voice gets softer. Right before the album’s turning point, an acoustic instrumental piece, “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners,” serves as an obvious transition in the album’s voicing. Sidenote – this particular work was the earliest influence on me as an acoustic guitar player.
The entire album is just one big contradiction it might seem, but as you listen you realize that it’s actually one big transition. Let’s say you were to take the first song on the album, “The Pretender”, and listened to the last, “Home” – which the entire album is named for, you would notice a huge difference in their sounds and would misinterpret the entire album as a contradiction. Now, if you listened to the whole album in the order it is set:
- The Pretender
- Let It Die
- Erase/Replace
- Long Road to Ruin
- Come Alive
- Stranger Things Have Happened
- Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up is Running)
- Summer’s End
- Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners
- Statues
- But, Honestly
- Home
You would see that the album flows like a river. The beginning being the rushing white waters and then deepening into the calm, flowing stretches at the end when the distortion of the electric guitars is replaced with the simple, elegant sound of a grand piano.
That is why this album make number five on my list.
Later. 🙂