Maps of Music

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)

Where the lyrics of Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace take you, and where it was really made.

Grohl nearly named the album "The One With That Song On It", but the title finally came from a lyric on the closing song, "Home".

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Followed In Your Honor, whose tour had both acoustic and electric shows
RCA Music Group president Clive Davis suggested the band could do both kinds of show together
Grohl picked the songs the band considered the best from a wide range of demos
Grohl brought back Gil Norton, who had produced The Colour and the Shape
Norton's approach was described as "unconventional" by Grohl
Band rehearsed for four weeks, playing a song a day from noon to midnight

Recording began in March 2007 at Studio 606 in Grohl's Virginia home basement
The studio has since moved to Northridge, California
"The Pretender" was written during a ten-day break in April
Sessions wrapped in mid-June, and the band did not feel the need to rerecord any song
"Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" is the band's first instrumental
Kaki King plays acoustic guitar on the instrumental
Pat Smear, a band member from 1995 to 1998, appears as a guest on one track

Cover art made by Invisible Creature
Cover combines a torpedo with a vacuum tube to juxtapose a weapon with an unrelated object

1	The Pretender	4:29
2	Let It Die	4:04
3	Erase/Replace	4:13
4	Long Road to Ruin	3:44
5	Come Alive	5:10
6	Stranger Things Have Happened	5:21
7	Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)	3:41
8	Summer’s End	4:37
9	Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners	2:32
10	Statues	3:47
11	But, Honestly	4:35
12	Home	4:52
13	Once & For All (demo)	3:47

Formed in Seattle in 1994 as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
Grohl recorded the debut album mostly alone in six days after Nirvana disbanded.
Recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate, and guitarist Pat Smear.
The band made its first public performance in February 1995, five months before the debut album's release.

Current members: Dave Grohl (vocals, guitar), Nate Mendel (bass), Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett (guitars), Rami Jaffee (keyboards), Ilan Rubin (drums).
Taylor Hawkins died in March 2022; Josh Freese served as drummer from 2023 to 2025 and Rubin from 2025 onward.

Released twelve studio albums, the twelfth, Your Favorite Toy, in April 2026.
Won 15 Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album five times.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, their first year of eligibility.

Metacritic average of 71 based on 30 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews
Entertainment Weekly: Tom Sinclair considered that while the record was not ground-breaking, the band had found a way to create its own archetype
Rolling Stone: David Fricke praised the sonic variety, calling the album an anthology of strong new songs
Billboard: Jessica Letkemann found "Home" the only disappointing track
Robert Christgau rated the album a B
Pitchfork: Adam Moerder considered the album a retread of The Colour and the Shape
The Guardian: Dave Simpson called it the band's most accomplished album

AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt the rock songs were not as remarkable as the softer songs, describing the album as just another Foo Fighters album
Spin: Kyle Anderson wrote that two-thirds of the tracks sounded a lot like earlier Grohl songs
Sputnikmusic: John Hanson described the album as extremely boring and uninspired

Debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 135,685 copies in its first week
Billboard 200 entry at number three with 168,000 copies in its first week
Certified Platinum by the RIAA on October 6, 2017
Won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 50th Grammy Awards
Won Best International Album at the 2008 Brit Awards

Kaki King joined the instrumental after Grohl invited her to record it while she was visiting Studio 606
Grohl later said Kaki King played the piece far better than he had ever played it
Pat Smear called his participation "the oddest recording experience I had with Foo Fighters" because he had no input in writing the song
Grohl wrote lyrics for the album in the studio, spending about 14 hours a day writing
"Home" was used in TV shows including Brothers & Sisters and One Tree Hill, and in the 2015 animated film Shaun the Sheep Movie