Arctic Reviews

Greatest Hits compilations are usually released at one of three stages of an artist's career. The first is where after only a year or two things are looking grim and popularity is already on the wane, a shooting star type choosing to take the cash and run option. The second is at the end of a more lustrous period, (Or after a messy label divorce a la Radiohead) and is usually a sequential outing of the chart toppers, nothing more, nothing less. And the third is most frequently when the artist is either A) long retired or B) dead. And in the latter case, nobody really seems to mind whether the quality control button is set to "Cash". As frequently as all three scenarios are part of a risk-free label strategy these days, all of them usually have one result: a turkey as stuffed and lifeless as the Christmas bird itself.

Clearly, if anyone could pull off a stroke as orthodox as releasing a retrospective and remain credible, it's Dave Grohl. After all, it takes a reputation as unsinkable as being the nicest man in rock

Such is the ubiquity of this music, and the fact that it's played every day in everywhere from blue collar rock bars to university grad parties from Kansas to Kyoto, it could be argued it's not worth dwelling on substance so familiar. But even denied of context, and without regurgitating ad nauseam Grohl's remarkable journey from tentative soloist to AAA-list supergroup junkie, his power as a songwriter of craft is undeniable. Movements may come and go, but a talent for marrying hard rock with with deft harmonies has given most of this material truly evergreen status, with even the back sequenced earlier material failing to spoil the homogeneity.

It's also a widely acknowledged fact that, no matter how much that first sledgehammer riff of "All My Life" or the kinetic zeal of "Monkey Wrench" may elevate neck hairs years later, a standard Foo Fighters album is almost never without unintentional filler. Thus Greatest Hits allows listeners to dispense with the guilt of constructing a playlist without "Big Me" on it, or "Burn Away". In fact, for most casual listeners you suspect it's sequenced exactly as a million playlists already are.

As has become the fashion for lesser artists, there are two new songs, "Wheels" and "Word Forward", (Plus an acoustic version of "Everlong") designed to make the die-ish hards feel slightly less violated. But again as is almost always the way, they're incongruous by varying degrees in comparison to their thirteen anthemic companions. In many respects, it's this excercise in futility which tarnishes Grohl's reputation more than a fraction.