Along with the film came a soundtrack of eleven all original
songs, all feature different artists, some well known names, some studio
musicians. The name of the soundtrack is Sound
City: Reel to Reel. The soundtrack does feature Grohl on every track, playing
some sort of instrument, being drums or guitar, depending on who the track
featured. The album is a great mix of a good amount of styles.
Now, something I don’t quite enjoy doing is reviewing an
album simply track by track, but because of all of the guest musicians on the
album, it is the only possible way to review this album.
The album starts off with Heaven and All, a track featuring Black Rebel Motorcycle Club members Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes. The song itself has a great
groove, and features a bit of the modern day roadhouse rock feel that BRMC are
known for, but with a bit of a different alternative edge.
Time Slowing Down features Rage Against The Machine members Tim Commerford on bass and Brad Wilk on drums as well as album
producer and sometimes vocalist Chris
Goss singing. The song (predictably) has a strong Foo Fighters feel to it, but it is a completely original and
terrific track. It is a slow paced song, slightly gloomy and at 6:00 it is the
second longest track off of the album, but it is definitely well written.
The album continues a somewhat gloomy feel in to the next
song, You Can’t Fix This. It features Foo
Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins
and multi-instrumentalist Rami Jaffee
and a singer who deserves no introduction, Stevie
Nicks. The song has a bit of a classic rock feel to it, and is very dark. Stevie
clearly doesn’t have the voice that she used to have, but that doesn’t take
away from how effective her voice is in the song. However, at this point in the
album you would want a slightly more upbeat song, so it is curious why this
song was placed where it was on the album.
Finally, a faster paced, more in your face track, The Man That Never Was. The backing
band in this song is essentially all Foo
Fighters members excluding guitarist Chris
Shiflett and features the one and only Rick Springfield
on vocals. It is unclear if Springfield is playing guitar on the track, but it
starts off with a guitar riff that sounds like something he would come up with.
The track sounds like the type of fun pop-rock songs that Rick has made a
career playing, only heavier. This song is surprisingly accessible to people
outside the Rock Springfield fan base. I would compare it accordingly: Rick
Springfield attempting to play a punk song.
The next song continues on the aggressive punk-like fun rock direction.
Your Wife Is Calling features
vocalist Lee Ving and
multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes,
and well as Foo Fighter members Taylor Hawkins and Pat Smear. The song is really nothing more than a fast heavy paced aggressive
song, with little inspiration towards the writing but definitely with good feel.
It has the sound of Foo Fighters
song when the band records one of their faster songs like White Limo, but with a very different style of vocals, one more
suited to the punk-rock style.
From Can To
Can’t goes back to the slow dark sound, this time hitting a
depressing note, but when you take in to consideration that Corey Taylor is the singer, you tend to
not be surprised. Corey is known in both of his bands, Stone Sour and Slipknot
to sing either slow dark songs or really heavy metal songs, the latter being a
style that no one would expect from the album. Along for the ride in this song
is Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder and to anyone’s surprise, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson playing completely out of
his element, and man does he do a great job. This track is among the best on
the album, definitely the best of the slower songs. Musically it is the heaviest
song on the album due to the amount of distortion used in the guitars.
Centipede brings
back Chris Goss and Alain Johanssen, this time with Queens of the Stone Age main man Josh Homme. This song is simply an
acoustic song, one of which that fits Homme’s style of singing, with well
written lyrics, but it is about three minutes in that the song finally catches
its listener, ending on an electric note, with a nice Foo Fighters/Queens of the
Stone Age style alternative sound.
Johanssen is brought back a third time for A Trick With No Sleeve, this time as
vocalist, with Homme back again playing guitar. Though a great song, the best
way to describe it would be another alternative style song in lieu of that of Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age.
A few months ago, Dave
Grohl gave a hint of a(nother) one off Nirvana
reunion, this time with none other
than Paul McCartney on vocals. This
reunion involved the surviving members (with bassist Krist Novoselic and Pat
Smear who briefly played with the band towards the end of its tenure) and
it was speculated on what songs they would play with Paul. Could we be hearing
the great Paul McCartney sing such grunge classics such as In Bloom or Smells Like Teen
Spirit? Or maybe even members of Nirvana playing such songs McCartney
classics as Band on the Run or Maybe I’m Amazed? No. Instead they
played one original song, titled Cut Me
Some Slack, which is the next song on the album. This track is in every way
a grunge song, with its slow heavily distorted “sludgy” guitars, with Paul
singing is lungs off. This is a song that will grow on its listener, I recommend
not doubting it if at first you don’t like it. It may not be the best track off
of the album, but it is what it is, a grunge song sung by Paul McCartney...I
mean that sounds awesome on its own.
On If I Were Me,
we finally get to hear Dave Grohl do
some singing. This song brings back Rami
Jaffee and features violinist Jessy
Greene and session drummer Jim Keltner.
As expected, the song soungs like a Foo
Fighters song, however it is warming for any fan of the Foos to finally be
hearing Grohl’s voice, even if the song is yet another slow track.
The album ends on a long note. Mantra, which features industrial rock legend Trent Reznor of Nine Inch
Nails, and once again featuring Josh
Homme, is simply a NIN song meeting a Foo Fighters song. This track also
features Grohl on vocals and is the longest track, clocking in at 7:43. The
song may appeal to NIN fans, but its long nature and, yes once again, dark and
gloomy sound may lose some listeners not far in to the song.
All in all, the album is what it is, a mixture of talent
getting together to make a series of songs to commemorate the falling of
something they all have in common, the Sound City recording studio. The album
would fare better if there were less slow tracks but there is no denying the sheer
talent featured on all of the songs brought forward on this album.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“From Can to Can’t”
– Since the album is filled with mostly slower songs, it wouldn’t make sense to
not have one of them as the highlight. This is the strongest song on the album,
mostly thanks to the absolute undeniable feeling that Corey Taylor puts
behind every note that he sings. As mentioned previously, it brings Rick Nielson completely out of his
element, but you would never know listening to how well he plays in this song.
Its style is different from that of other slower songs on the album in that it
doesn’t sound remotely like anything the Foo
Fighters could ever record, but that is only more reason to choose it as a
highlight to the album, seeing as how some listeners are likely hoping to not
buy a Foo Fighters album, but rather a soundtrack.
FINAL RATING
7.5 (Out of 10)
Track List(via
Wikipedia):
1.
|
"Heaven and All"
|
Robert Levon Been, Dave Grohl, Peter Hayes
|
5:27
|
2.
|
"Time Slowing Down"
|
Chris Goss, Tim Commerford, Grohl, Brad Wilk
|
5:58
|
3.
|
"You Can't Fix This"
|
Stevie Nicks, Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee
|
5:56
|
4.
|
"The Man That Never Was"
|
Rick Springfield, Grohl, Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear
|
3:24
|
5.
|
"Your Wife Is Calling"
|
Lee Ving, Grohl, Hawkins, Alain Johannes, Smear
|
3:20
|
6.
|
"From Can to Can't"
|
Corey Taylor, Grohl, Rick Nielsen, Scott Reeder
|
4:50
|
7.
|
"Centipede"
|
Josh Homme, Goss, Grohl, Johannes
|
5:10
|
8.
|
"A Trick With No Sleeve"
|
Johannes, Grohl, Homme
|
4:55
|
9.
|
"Cut Me Some Slack"
|
Paul McCartney, Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Smear
|
4:38
|
10.
|
"If I Were Me"
|
Grohl, Jessy Greene, Jaffee, Jim Keltner
|
4:10
|
11.
|
"Mantra"
|
Grohl, Homme, Trent Reznor
|
7:43
|
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