Foo Fighters: Album of the Year???

If you take the softer disc from In Your Honor, There is Nothing Left to Lose, and the experience gained from the Foo Fighters' recent Skin and Bones "Afoostic" tour and stick 'em in a blender, you get something very close to Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, the sixth studio album from a band that by most accounts should have been nothing more than a small side project (note that the first Foo album was recorded by Grohl and the members of the recently-defunct Sunny Day Real Estate). On this album, Grohl and Co. are back in top form on what may be their best album to date.

2005's In Your Honor double album, while containing some of Grohl's best singing and songwriting to date, also seemed very schismatic, with no apparent connection between the two albums other than some artwork. Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace offers up the best of both worlds, with a stunning mix of balls-to-the-wall guitar and drums with the tuneful qualities that turned "Big Me" into a hit 12 years ago, as witnessed by leadoff track and first single "The Pretender". Strangely enough, this might be the weakest track on the album, with everything that follows it taking fans on a twisted roller coaster of ear shattering drums, wandering guitars, and flat-out beautiful lyrics by Grohl.

With tracks like "Cheer Up Boys, Your Makeup is Running", the instrumental "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners", and the far-and-away standout "Long Road to Ruin", Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace show us where the Foo have been, what they learned, and a small taste of where they're going. If they didn't before, The Foo Fighters should have everyone's attention by now.

Ruling on the Field: 10/10*
Highlight Reel: "Long Road to Ruin"

*In the interest of remaining professional, I lowered the albums rating to within the scale's parameters. On the first listens this album hit as high as a 14 or 15 on a 10-point scale. Yeah, it's that good.

==TJ==