FOO FIGHTERS – CONCRETE AND GOLD

American rock band Foo Fighters released their 9^th album Concrete and Gold on September 15, 2017. This heavily anticipated album was released with the help of RCA Records and was produced by Greg Kurstin.

The band describes this album as a place where both hard rock extremes and pop sensibilities merge into one. The collection concentrated on the future of the United States and got written from the viewpoint of one of the band’s members, Dave Grohl. He focuses on the political atmosphere following the 2016 elections where President Donald Trump emerged the winner.

The presidency of the country, as well as the ensuing heated political climate, is focused on significantly in the album. Juxtapositions are quite common on the record, and the central theme of the album revolves around hope and desperation.

The songs featured on the album got recorded between December 2016 and May 2017, and this took place in EastWest Studios in Hollywood, California. The songs fall into the genres of hard rock, and progressive rock and they play for a total of forty-eight minutes and seventeen seconds.

The top singles in this album are ‘Run’ which got released on the 1^st of June, 2017 and ‘The Sky is a Neighborhood’ which got released on the 23^rd of August, 2017.

Band Members

• Dave Grohl – Lead vocals & Guitar
• Chris Shiflett – Guitar & Backing vocals
• Pat Smear – Guitar
• Nate Mendel – Bass
• Taylor Hawkins – Drums & Backing vocals
• Rami Jaffee – Keyboards

Background

The band began working on this album towards the end of 2016, following a six-month break from performances owing to Grohl’s injuries. He had suffered an injury while on the Sonic Highways World Tour. Grohl had ideas for twelve songs which he wished to work on to come up with an album. The band decided to enlist the help of a pop music producer Kurstin to help them come up with an excellent record. Kurstin had not worked on a ‘heavy rock’ album before then.

Tracklisting

All the music in the album got composed by Foo Fighters.

Commercial performance

The band was able to sell one hundred and twenty thousand copies of the album in the United States within the first week of releasing it. The collection also ranked 1st on other charts such as United Kingdom Official Albums Chart, Australian ARIA Albums Chart as well as nine different top tables.

Critical reception

ADM Rating

• 6.6/10
  ADM Rating - 6.6/10

On its release, the album received a lot of praise from critics who felt that the record had a very expansive feel in both its lyrics and beats. The album ranked 1st on the Billboard 200, thus becoming the second album by the band to achieve such rankings. It moved one hundred and twenty-seven thousand units equivalent to records within its first week.
Its hit singles ‘Run’ and ‘The Sky is a Neighborhood’ were also well received by critic and fans alike. The former ranked first while the latter ranked seventh in the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs Chart.