Porn star ‘tache? Check. Bad wigs? Preposterous sets? Yes, the funny side of Foo Fighters has returned. The video for Long Road To Ruin is almost the natural successor to Learn To Fly.

Grohl and the boys play a bunch of soap opera actors. Grohl’s overemotional character plays a doctor until a number of on-set bust-ups result in him leaving, forming a band and becoming successful.

Although it’s not quite as remarkable as The Pretender, Long Road is still an awesome track. Check it out:

Positive Reviews

• Johnny Firecloud – “What makes their sixth studio album so good isn?t the fact that Grohl has found a way to take the signature Foo sound to a higher level. He has, but with the help of producer Gil Norton, (knob-turner for 1997?s double-platinum The Colour and the Shape) Grohl has also discovered how to break outside his own mold.”
• John Robinson – “On the last Foos album, “In Your Honour” rock and acoustic music were exiled to different discs. Here, a satisfactory compromise is brokered between the two: the excellent “Summer’s End” is easy on the ear, easier still on the brain, and sets him up in the radio-friendly ?Wonderwall? district one imagines is his spiritual home.”
• Simon T Diplock – “…it brilliantly captures a band on form, back on their toes, and remembering how to rock too. Wonderful.”
• John Murphy – “…this is another fine album from Grohl and company. Their ‘greatest hits’ collection, whenever that’s released, may well prove to be their finest release, but this is just fine to be going on with.”

Neutral Reviews

• Kyle Anderson at Spin – “It’s hard to criticize Grohl for his lack of innovation, because he’s never wanted to start a revolution. But at this point, Foo Fighters’ consistency has become predictability, and it threatens to trap them in the modern-rock ghetto, dangerously close to those guys in Hinder.”
• Ryan Deramos – “Fortunately, the album goes beyond standard Foo fare starting with the fifth track, the aptly titled “Come Alive.” I highly enjoyed the second disc – the acoustic disc – of In Your Honor, and tracks five through twelve successfully not only successfully marry acoustic Foos with loud Foos (often in the same song), but those tracks make babies that further the Foo evolution. All right, those were messy metaphors, but I hope you understand what I mean.”
• David Fricke – “Dave Grohl used to spread this variety across whole albums — the one-man power pop of 1995’s Foo Fighters; the real-band slam of ’97’s The Colour and the Shape; the unplugged CD in the 2005 set In Your Honor. He has finally figured out how to make one record out of all that leeway.”
• Dan Kelly – “In conclusion, this album is a definite improvement on previous effort In Your Honour. More clearly defined and lyrically intelligent, this album easily gets two thumbs up.”

Negative Reviews

• Adam McKibbin – “[Foo Fighters] continue their pace, but without the peppering of truly great songs that propelled their first two albums to the top of the then-crowded alt-rock field. They can still bring the thunder, but the chunky riffs and anthemic alt-rock choruses aren’t always aging kindly.”
• Damien Jones – “Unfortunately when Grohl et al do delve into pastures new it doesn’t quite work. When the charismatic frontman kicks up a country storm on “Summer’s End”, it falls painfully short of the mark.”
• Zane Ewton – “The Foos long ago abandoned humor for a more grown up, morose view of life…On record, they just are not that much fun anymore.”
• Adam Moerder – “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners highlights the Foo Fighters’ unsolicited willingness to be everything to everybody all the time. Consequently, they’re sounding less and less relatable, leaving us pining not just for the days of a little grunge trio from Seattle, but for the relentlessly catchy and charismatic Dave Grohl of the Foos’ still-fantastic self-titled debut and the better half of The Colour and the Shape.”

Having read through 12 great reviews of the new album, most reviewers are hung up on the slight change in the band’s sound. Some see it as an evolution for the band and embrace it. Others are slightly hostile to it and criticise the inconsistent styles on the album.

One thing they are agreed on however, is that Foo Fighters are on of the most consistently good acts in rock music today. I thought Zane Ewton’s comments about them losing their humor were interesting – it’s been a while since I’ve seen a fun Foo Fighters video.

Anyway, I’ll be having a listen to the album this week, and I’ll let y’all know what I think of it soon…

Needless to say, The Pretender doesn’t disappoint on any level. It starts out with some innocent sounding arpeggios, but soon bursts into life delivering the frenzy that has become a Foo Fighters trademark.

The intro is subject to a bit of debate – some are claiming it’s a “Stairway To Heaven” rip-off, but it sounds more like a snippet from one of those Tenacious D songs he helped out with. It doesn’t matter, because the whole damned song rocks, so stop complaining!

We like hairy Grohl by the way – the more beard the better!