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You know who’s a funny guy? That Dave Grohl. That whole ‘dressing up as a woman’ shtick he pulls out for Foo Fighters videos? Man, that always brings a smile to my face. Clowning it up with Tenacious D? Straight comedy genius. And his and the Foo Fighters’ longstanding support for and advocacy of the American pressure group Alive & Well who campaign, amongst other things, for AIDS medication to not be sent to Africa because the ‘AIDS epidemic’ is actually hysteria whipped up by the pharmaceutical industry? I laughed so much a little pee came out.* **
So Dave’s band are six albums deep now, and they’ve always been a group as clearly in love with Led Zeppelin as they are with Alive & Well’s belief that the high incident rate of AIDS amongst homosexuals isn’t because AIDS is a sexually transmitted illness (because, apparently, it isn’t), but because gays are mainly junkie intravenous drug addicts who can’t help but share needles all the time. Maybe recent single ‘The Pretender’ would cut it as a high school talent show take on IV_, but as a welcome back single for a band who are meant to, you know, _rock? Not even close.
Some of the stuff on here, songs like ‘Let It Die’ and ‘Come Alive’, with their quiet-quiet-LOUD-quiet-quiet-LOUD dynamics, show an admirable dedication towards keeping the spirit of the 1990s alive. Then again, so would covering the theme tune to_ Hangin’ With Mr Cooper_. And at least you could dance to that. As it stands, right now, Foo Fighters sound like a band lacking in energy. They sound as bereft of life as Eliza Jane Scovill, the daughter of Alive & Well founder Christine Maggiore, who died of pneumonia aged three weeks old. A post-mortem showed advanced AIDS. Maggiore’s organisation has long argued that pregnant women should not take antiretroviral medication preventing the spread of HIV to their children.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is worth comparing with 2007’s stillborn Marilyn Manson effort, as it also contains a sly dig at emo (entitled ‘Cheer Up Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)’, not so much a song title as novelty t-shirt slogan), and even with recent efforts by Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins. When they try and go for a more mature sound, you can’t help but wonder why they aren’t turning the amps up and flailing their limbs around like they used to back in the day. When they do try and go back to that more sprightly sound of their younger days, you realise that you’re not as young as you used to be, and they certainly aren’t: Foo Fighters are now flabby, creaky, and worst of all past it. It’s got to be hard for survivors of the mid ‘90s rock boom to realise that they’re as relevant to, or needed by, today’s generation as Styx and Foreigner were to their fanbases back in 1995. It comes to a sorry state when a Red Hot Chili Peppers-style descent into Radio 2 AOR seems like the best option but... well, Foo Fighters have made worse career choices. Like deciding to offer unconditional support to an organisation that believe that all HIV-test results are inaccurate.
Lazy sarcastic zings aside, Foo Fighters always have been a truly mediocre act that built themselves a 12-year-long career based on a brace of half-decent singles (‘This Is A Call’ and ‘Monkey Wrench’), the utterly fake notion that Dave Grohl is a genuine ‘nice guy’ rather than some rock ‘n’ roll Ned Flanders, and a shitload of good will they’ve been afforded based solely on the fact that their frontman used to be the least important member of a dead guy’s band. Face facts: if it had been Evan Dando turning a shotgun on himself back in the summer of ’94, the drummer from The Lemonheads could have sold 15 million records by now.
But sure, if it comes down to a choice between throwing down £12.99 on this album or giving it to a charity that’ll send the money to a seven-year-old Namibian boy screaming out in agonised pain because of the mass of tumourous nodules that have colonised his skin, you should definitely buy Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. The African kid will only spend the money on Panini stickers. What else is he gonna do with it?
*Further reading: official A&W website, critical _Mother Jones article and Wikipedia; it must be noted that the band no longer lists the campaign as something it supports on their official website, here - Ed._
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Tweet This
Share on Facebookbizarre review in places
but agree witht he general notions of a 'flabby' foos. the nicest man in rock (tm) thing is slightly laughable, who gives a fuck? thom yorke's by all accounts a bit of a knob but at least radiohead aren't shit
Is this a review?
Or just personal dig?
Weird!!
good, interesting review
I'd always suspected Dave of being the devil. Though you're of course wrong about his role in nirvana.
This:
"They sound as bereft of life as Eliza Jane Scovill, the daughter of Alive & Well founder Christine Maggiore, who died of pneumonia aged three weeks old."
I the most fucking ridculous sentence I've ever read, well done.
Ha
"Face facts: if it had been Evan Dando turning a shotgun on himself back in the summer of ’94, the drummer from The Lemonheads could have sold 15 million records by now" is wonderful.
My criticism of the Kanye review was based upon the fact that the negative attitude was towards him, not the music. This review is essentially the same, yet I will happily agree with it.
Boring, boring band.
wtf
I don't like the band, but when did this site turn into Pitchfork?
sorry, but
this is a completely bizarre review!
This
is probably one of the most disgusting, offensive and thoroughly irrelevant reviews I've ever read.
Disgusting?
Interests: Drill 'n bass. Dinosaurs. Deep-throating your Mum's pulsating, 11-inch black cock. It tastes ssssoooo goooood.
YOU LEAVE MY MUM OUT OF THIS.
I'm really liking Carrie's
writing myself. Interesting, not afraid to tell it like it is. More I say, MORE!!!
Strange
I thought this was a review of their new album, but it only mentions two tracks before it returns to a general sarcastic diatribe against Dave Grohl, and an (admittedly horrendous sounding) organisation the band no longer profess to support!
After all that I'm none the wiser what the new album's like!
I pretty much lost interest in the Foos after The Colour and The Shape, but I'm still interested in reading about their material, just in case they've regained their former glory, not a long rant.
it is interesting
but there's a fine line between being outspoken, and just needlessly personal and agressive.
Just...
a long pointless rant about nothing. Worst review I've ever read on DiS
This is...
the most ridiculous excuse for an album review I think I have ever read. I certainly can't remember a worse one. If you have personal grievances against certain organisations, fine. Air these grievances all you like. But please remember that this is a music website, not your own personal blog, and you're reviewing an album, not the AIDS epidemic in Africa, charity organisations and their opinions on AIDS, or even the band itself, regardless of their political beliefs or charitable leanings. Just the CD.
DiS, I'm appalled that this was allowed on your site. It really does lower the standard, and by a significant degree.
I try not to get involved in slagging reviews off
but this is fucking terrible
Is this an album review?
I'm simply going to back up what Sappy404 said, this isn't anything to do with the album is it! Using a music review to get across your own beliefs, and has to be said in a pretty distasteful manner is beyond me. Why was it allowed on the site, surely someone at DiS should of stopped it.
Anyway as far as the Foo's are concerned I'm bored of them, they stopped being entertaining when I matured musically. Now it's just dull, not that I've heard this album but I know what they sound like by now.
If Foo Fighters no longer support this organisation,
doesn't that kind of make this admittedly spirited diatribe against an admittedly way-past-their-best college FM rock band slightly redundant?
Interesting to read about Alive and Well though it was, the issue of the Foos' new record and Alive and Well's dubious scientific assertions are two separate issues, and it would have better served Carrie's (no doubt honourable) intentions had they been written about as such.
ffs
a review is a review, not a subjective rant.
Useless...
im joing the slaying
2 points:
That was really stupid and I have no idea how this is still here, I would have pulled it down for slander.
Second Don't think Foo's have done a good album since Colour and the Shape. Which annoys me everytime they release a record because I want to love them.
i reckon
Carrie is actually a bitter make up wearing emo boy.
Stupid review, and anyone with half a brain will realise that this is a very solid album, their best in a decade, and anyone with a whole brain will know that this review is turd. And whats with all the HIV references ffs??
Perhaps an album review isn't the best place to vent this kind of longstanding hatred for a band,
but I do share your sentiments.
Particularly this - 'Foo Fighters always have been a truly mediocre act that built themselves a 12-year-long career based on a brace of half-decent singles.'
well..
..thats just about the most bizarre thing i ever read.
maybe take your personal vendetta's elsewhere and out of an album review innit?
nice one bringing the dead child into it too...
FOR GOD'S SAKE
it didn't it never did. Stop saying that.
I've heard so many people say "When did this site turn into Pitchfork?" these past few weeks. It's a joke.
This is just really lazy journalism from a really lazy publication. Pitchfork, regardless of the hype that surrounds them, actually bother to consistently write reviews, express their opinions, back them up with valid reasons and are generally fair, this, is just one in a whole string of reviews on Drowned in Sound where, they couldn't actually be bothered write a review on the record (which I sympathise with, Foo Fighters are one of the most overated Acts of the last 10 years) but it's simply unprofessional, unfunny and unshocking (something these kind of DiS reviews desparately try to be, but fail).
Go to pitchfork and read their review on this album if you actually want an opinion on it.
This is...
..the worst review that I have ever read.
This is a music website. This is an album.
Unless the artist is Robert Mugabe I couldn't give a toss what they do or don't believe in (and aside from this it seems that they don't even support this thing anyway), I want to know if the music is any good.
It's beyond ridiculous
Actually to be fair
the bit about the drummer from the lemonheads is one of the funniest things I've ever read.
This reviewer should never be let near another record!
I hate to sound like my mum...
but you really should be ashamed of yourselves to allow that in a review. Completetely out of order.
Thanks!
Sounds like it's a half decent record. You know, when you don't have a personal alterior motive for disliking it because of feelings toward a charitible organisation once supported by the band.
This review sucks so hard
that I got no more suck to suck with because you stole all my suck with the amount of suck you used on this review.
sorry mate
I don't like the idea of complaining about a review but i have to agree that this was really misjudged.
And sappy as the Foos are, Grohl was one of the best drummers in early 90s rock. No Dale Crover, but still incredibly talented.
'a truly mediocre act'
...since when? They were awesome at Live Earth and can still consistently knock out a well-written tune pretty much on demand.
This is sub NME-standard reviewing - taking potshots at sacred cows purely to provoke a reaction and then having the somewhat dubious personal satisfaction of being 'the hot topic right now' as a result. The insight into the Alive & Well Foundation was interesting (and yes, I did follow the hyperlinks and read up on it) but using a poorly-written music review as a vehicle for it was childish at best and entirely self-defeating, and as such is not fitting for this site.
Pretty much as usual
the man above has said everything I wanted to say, ten times better than I would have said it.
Ugh
I don't particulary like the Foos or this album, but this review is remarkably appalling. Total drivel.
Strange
I've read this reviewer's other two articles on the site, and whilst they all share the same downbeat, pessimistic tone I think this is a fucking awful review.
At least the Kanye review managed to put the music into context, and the Scouting For Girls one at least said SOMETHING about the music itself.
But this, well it's just mistimed, misplaced and inaccurate. And it says nothing about the album.
This is sub-blog material from a clearly gifter reviewer.
*
gifteD reviewer
nice nickname
Cosmo meets WWE, how interesting...
Nice style, really, but the fact that they used to support this dubious organisation shouldn't really matter in the end. And you don't need that to say that the album's mediocre anyway.
this review isn't the best ever
but the reaction of some the above posters is laughable
this review..
sounds like Bono and reads like propaganda against the organisation rather than commentary on a record, and that swipe at the dead kid was the lowest point here in a while
BUT
it's just a review. click BACK and it's gone.
The Scouting For Girls Review was pretty fun
the Graduation one was terrible too though
it's good to see
people reacting against this shite.
DiS, take notes, you would be great if you got rid of "reviews" like this
why
go on the site if you hate it so much....?
because
it still can be an important source of information, as is the only major British indie e-zine I'm aware of (I should probably research better)
I just find it really annoying when people can't or refuse to do their jobs properly.
this is the single worst review I've ever read on this site
ignoring the borderline ridiculous AIDS thing, the reason they are big is because
they write catchy AOR pop-rock songs which
are with the odd exception pretty mediocre. And that's what fucking sells.
Obviously it helped them get signed in
the first place that one of them used to
be in Nirvana, but you dont sell millions
of records on the back of that. When's the last time Krist Novelist sold more than 23 copies of a record?
when was the
last time novoselic released a record?
Last i heard he had moved onto politics.
well
if any of his records had done half as
well as the Foo Fighters stuff Im sure
he'd still be doing it
agreed
I dug the Scouting for Girls one and Carrie is obviously talented, but I think the one misses the point a bit. Axe-grinding their past-politicism lends nothing towards critically analyzing the music. Lots of cunts make good music, and lots of nice guys/gals make shite. Still, we all fall askew every now and then. I still like Ocean Colour Scene.
Plus, The comments have been fantastic Totally worth it.
He plays with Flipper now
...recording a new album with them, apparently.
^
rofl
yep those other two reviews were grand
the comments.. well.. people are always in uproar about something here, aren't they?
though i guess i'm biased, i'd say this is only about the third review i've seen on here where i could see the opposer's point - that's three reviews in seven years, which i reckon even rivals the "holy" Pitchfork.
This review
really doesn't deserve the knee-jerk response it's elicited. It's powerful stuff -- excellently written and making a lot of good points, even if most of these aren't actually about the quality of the album itself.
The Alive and Well thing should be interesting to anyone who wasn't aware of it before (ie. me), and it has made me view the band in a different light. Personally, I can rarely enjoy music if I have no respect for the people who made it. Agreed though, the point was hammmered home a little too heavily here. But Carrie was obviously hoping to get a reaction, and that's exactly what's happened.
And seriously, give up the 'this site's turning into Pitchfork' thing. This review has been accused of being lazy journalism (which it's not), but that Pitchfork line is just lazy criticism, and every time it appears it's almost always completely off the mark. DiS is a great reviews site, and so's Pitchfork. That's about as much of a comparison as you need.
"Dear DiS, please tell all your writers that all we want in a review is a description of what the album sounds like, which songs are good and which songs are bad. We don't want to be made to think and we certainly don't want any of the reviewer's personality to sneak its way into the article. Blandness all the way, please. Yours sincerely, oversensitive idiot."
And if that dead baby line had been an Eminem lyric you'd all think it was priceless.
This
review reminds me why I love DIS.
The review is a car crash, but DIS still puts it out to the wolves. Wolves in this case being scrotums like 'Scrotum' who's comment and 'interests' are still causing me to laugh two days later.
God bless DIS and all the 'sensitive' users who sail her.
Pitchfork
Did you read the review for The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips where the guy talks about moving into a new flat? Well that was about as relevant to the cd as this review was to this cd. Actually, you could probably even swap the reviews around and get the same outcome.
no mention
of it sounding like Snow Patrol
THE BIGGEST MAJOR COMPARISON!??!?!
^ this ^
I saw him with them a while back. Most odd. (ATP was it? Thurston one?)
Crap "review
and you sound like a twat.
yup
they were that memorable
Indeed it was
I laughed at his bald head!
^Half of this^
One of the reasons I love DiS is that they'll actually go ahead and print reviews like this, knowing full well that DiS readers won't just blithely accept a review in the same way, for instance, NME readers will.
Why review a band that you obviously have a gruge against?
Terrible Review.
good review or bad
it certainly created a response!
good point
well made.
if Foos had still supported Alive and Well it would've made an interesting feature.
but as far as the baby thing goes, i still think it's a little off the mark, but it's something that either offends or it doesn't. like, "babies with AIDS" makes up a bit of Simon Amstell's stand-up, and it's genuinely funny, but the above reference is menacing and sensationalist, which i think is where most people draw the line - not the topic matter, more the approach.
you know what's funny?
all these comments and not one person has said:
"you're wrong, this album is good"
well I for one
haven't heard it, but it doesn't stop my critiquing/criticisng the review
i said the record was bad
and didn't comment on how shit the article is
does that count?
Errr...
Yes?
I think?
Referee!
its a bit like the offside rule
no-one knows what it actually is, everyone just has to guess.
Raz's goal stands, because he played the Snow Patrol card.
i'm funnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyway
Can someone tell me what the album is like ?
yeah, that is pretty low
no need to be that callous
so you
cant separate an artist from their art? thats what this review boils down to really isnt it. and the lazy sub-charlie brooker vindictiveness makes this a fairly pointless 'review'. so its a good job i dont care what the album is actually like
Wow
This review is actually more boring than the album. Congratulations to whoever the fuck wrote that, i didn't think that was possible.
Personal vendetta
85,000 people at Hyde Park and at sold out shows all over the world seem to disagree with you about the talent of Foo Fighters. Anyway, I doubt you even listened to the album as is the case with most music reviewers. Seems this review has more to do with an underlying hatred of Dave Grohl than with the album. Perhaps you should look elsewhere for work...like the Taliban.
They have jobs available?
SEE YA.
Pathetic
What a pathetic review. Even though I think this is actually a great album, I still like reading reviews that think otherwise if they bring up good points. This review, however, drips of sarcasm that is not amusing and is reminiscent of a whinny rant from a young teenager. Please do your job by actually REVIEWING an album instead of being childish.
Pardon me,
You suck at writing reviews. I wasn't aware one could be as attacking and incoherent as you appear to be. Congrats. You win pretentious asshole of the day.
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