Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

"Attention, pay attention!" barks Dave Grohl, like a cocksure drill instructor. If 2005's In Your Honor was their Led Zep-styled lunge at bombastic, sonic complexity and the rock 'n' roll hall of fame induction which rewards it, then Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is the Foos' return to basics that can only expand their longevity as stadium-filling monoliths.

Coincidentally, it's a full decade after The Colour and the Shape, and Grohl's not one to miss a trick. Gil Norton is back in the production saddle, for what initially smacks of a concerted effort to recapture some of the carefree fun and emotional muscle that turned that album double platinum. And who could deny them their opportunity? Such is this predilection toward their earlier glory days that former Foo and Nirvana associate Pat Smear pops up to clutch his fretboard and weave some magic on the glorious Let It Die.

However, once the tempo of this fierce gambit slows by track four, the tender, countrified influence of Harvest-era Neil Young (Home, Statues) shines through Grohl's songwriting to demonstrate that, although there's no creative dice being rolled here, the Foo Fighters have plenty of juice left in the tank. [Johnny Langlands]