New album: Sonic Highways
Artist: Foo Fighters
Label: Roswell
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Dave Grohl definitely has a strong work ethic. When he’s not making albums with the Foo Fighters or any of his side projects, he’s making documentaries. His latest endeavor Sonic Highways is a documentary/TV show/album that is a great piece of marketing but a rather lousy piece of music.
These days the music industry only has room for one big mainstream rock band, and for whatever reason it’s been decided that it’s going to be Foo Fighters. For a few minutes it seemed like The Black Keys were going to take over, but now they’re being labeled “hipster rock” so who knows what will come of them.
Grohl proved his mettle as a musician while drumming for Nirvana, and his one-man-band trick on the first (and best) Foo Fighters album was mighty impressive. That being said, this new collection of Foo Fighters songs is pretty boring.
Having more in common with the antiseptic sound of Fall Out Boy than their own triumphs, Sonic Highways is the sound of a band low on ideas. “Something From Nothing” features some tasty slide guitar, but there is nothing memorable about the riff or the vocal. The oddly stiff “The Feast And The Famine” does nothing to improve the situation, and “Congregation” sounds like a tired but well produced Stone Temple Pilots leftover.
Featuring only eight songs on this album was a smart move, because piling on four more lifeless, unmemorable tracks would have made what is hear even more annoying. The last two tracks — “Subterranean” and “I Am A River” — improve matters a bit, but even these two rather ambitious tracks never fully get into gear.
There’s no need to write Foo Fighters off, but there’s no reason to buy this album either. When Grohl recently said bands should just give their music away for free, he was wrong — except in this case.
Classic album: Indestructible
Artist: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
Label: Blue Note
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
This 1965 release by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers would have been deemed a stone classic had it not been released at the onset of the British pop invasion.
Blakey’s drumming alone is worth the price of admission, but throw in Reginald Workman (bass), Wayne Shorter (sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Cedar Walton (piano) and Curtis Fuller (trombone), and it’s almost impossible to not end up with something special. The rhythm section of Blakey and Workman don’t so much keep time as propel it, while the horn section blasts out sublime lines with an intense controlled abandon.
Opening with Fuller’s “The Egyptian,” Blakey’s Jazz Messengers hit the ground running. Although this is jazz, it’s of the hard bop variety, which means there isn’t much time allotted for warming up into a solo. Another Fuller tune — “Sortie” — gives Blakey a chance to show off his ability to weave Latin rhythms into his playing. Walton’s “When Love Is New” is a classic ballad that gives Shorter and Morgan plenty of room to stretch.
Wrapping up with two fine Shorter compositions (“Mr. Jin” and “It’s A Long Way Down”), Indestructible proves itself to be one of the great jazz albums of the 1960s — and all time for that matter. Most of Blakey’s Jazz Messenger releases are recommended, but this one should be near the top of the list.
Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Jon’s books are available at www.jondawson.com.