Foo Fighters' new album

It’s telling that when Foo Fighters closed their summer 2017

European tour at Athens’ stunning Odeon of Herodes Atticus on July 10, not a single track from 2014’s Sonic Highways featured amid their 21-song set list. A companion piece to the HBO series of the same name, front­man Dave Grohl’s “love letter to the history of American music”, the album was compromised as a result of the concept attached to its creation, namely that each of its eight tracks would be written and recorded in a different US city, inspired by the history and musical heritage of its birthplace.

But if Sonic Highways was the sole Foo Fighters album not represented at the band’s televised Acropolis, Wow! spectacular, it’s significant too that Dave Grohl elected to include no fewer than five selections from Concrete And Gold, then still two months from release. In an age where record company paranoia over piracy ensures that even the most undistinguished releases are guarded as if they are freshly excavated ‘lost’ Led Zeppelin sessions, this displayed a welcome chutz­pah: moreover it suggests that Grohl is preternaturally pleased with what his band, untethered from self-imposed restrictions, have fashioned this time around. As well he might be.

(from Planet Rock mag)