Album: Foo Fighters

One might expect a Foo Fighters live album to showcase the band's heavy-rock blitzkrieg; but having experienced the efficacy of the Unplugged approach with Nirvana, Dave Grohl has cannily chosen that route, using an expanded eight-strong line-up including extra guitar, keyboards, percussion and violin to deliver new, largely acoustic versions of the Foos' songs. It's an elegantly accomplished exercise, the shortfall in wattage more than compensated for by the ingenious re-arrangements. With resonant vibes haunting "Over & Out", and accordion wheezing poignantly behind the anthemic "Next Year", the effect is to render the songs much more inward-looking, their emotional unease and exploratory arrangements owing more to the likes of Radiohead and Pink Floyd than to hard rock or heavy metal. The results focus attention on the quality of the material, so Skin and Bones offers a glimpse of what a Grohl solo album might sound like, revealing him as a formidable singer-songwriter, easily the match of today's blighted crop of Blunts and Grays.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Over & Out', 'My Hero', 'Next Year', 'Big Me'