They don’t really need an intro. The fact that they’ve sold out two nights at the 02 Arena in London, were invited to headline Live Earth and shift millions and millions of records should say enough. Of course, the odd fact is still that no one ever expected Dave Grohl’s band to succeed; “He was just the drummer in Nirvana, dude”. But hey, the Foo Fighters have been going for over ten years now whilst Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is their seventh album. Scary. And yet Grohl still gives the impression of being your best mate. If you stumbled into a pub to find him at the bar, you’d imagine that he’d buy you a beer and laugh at your jokes – the “Nicest Man in Rock” as he’s so frequently referred to.

And that would be a good description of Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace; it’s a nice album. Gone are the post-grunge pretentions of their debut, their alt-rock anthems of The Colour & The Shape and the Queens of the Stone Age pretentions of One By One. This is an album aimed firmly at mainstream rock. There’s nothing here to scare people, the optimistic howls of Grohl on “The Pretender” and “Let It Die” are meer echoes of the past. Perhaps the most surprising track on here is “Statues” – it sounds like they’ve listened to the last Wilco album. It’s full of late 70′s rock guitars with Grohl’s voice sounding suspiciously like Paul McCartney in the intro.

There are still songs on here where you can imagine people chanting the choruses at stadiums around the world. Recent single “The Pretender” may play it straight down the line, but I’ve had the chorus going through my head for weeks with the chunky riffs for company. Whilst it might not be fresh and new, Grohl and the Foo’s still know how to craft perfect rock songs. With “Come Alive” and “Stranger Things Have Happened” you can imagine, if they still let you these days, swaying lighters and matches in the air of a massive arena to Grohl’s pensive vocals and acoustic meanderings.

It’s not that Grohl has become the paraody he always seems to flirt with, but the lack of aggression and originality to the second half of this album is a little worrying. Sure, they’ve become one of the most successful rock acts of the times whilst still being cool and enjoying (though decreasing) critical success. But, if Grohl wants a challenge it might be that he needs to change the mix next time around. Invite Josh Homme over, have a few beers and a smoke and just see where it takes him.