Album Review: ‘Sound City: Real to Reel’. Dave Grohl and The Sound City Players makes a soundtrack worthy of his excellent documentary. 

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Last month Dave Grohl released his wonderful documentary ‘Sound City‘ (click here to read my review).

It told the history of the studio where he, and many other famed musicians recorded many iconic albums.

Grohl was inspired to jam with many of those artists, and formed the Sound City Players.

‘Sound City: Real To Reel‘ showcases those collaborations, all with Grohl as the main creative linchpin.

The second MVP is the famed NEVE 8028 soundboard he bought from the now defunct studio. Super-Producer Butch Vig (Nevermind) mans the controls.

‘Real To Reel‘  kicks off with  ‘Heaven And All‘, featuring vocals from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Robert Levon Been. It’s muscled up noise rock with a foreboding mood.

‘Time Slowing Down‘ features producer/musician Chris Goss, Grohl and the rhythm section of Rage Against The Machine. It’s more melodic than you might think, conjuring up swirling psychedelia.

‘You Can’t Fix This‘ sounds like one of Fleetwood Mac’s darker opuses; Stevie Nicks intones lyrics of regret which could involve her former band mates, the closing of Sound City, or both: ‘You can’t fix this/You lost a friend…Friendships break like glass’.

Fear’s Lee Ving sings on the jittery punk rocker ‘Your Wife Is Calling‘, a humorous tale of a nagging wife calling bars to find her ne’er-do-well husband: ‘I’ll be right home dear! I’m just here with the Foo Fighters and Fear!’

‘Centipede’ reteams Grohl with Queens of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, so it’s little surprise that it sounds like a Them Crooked Vultures track.

Grohl and Homme’s collaboration steps it up a notch when joined by NIN’s Trent Reznor on ‘Mantra.’ His vocals sound like a summation for all the Sound City veterans: ‘And all of this will never be the same way again’.

Speaking of, check out my review of the new QOTSA album featuring Grohl and Reznor…

As with most albums featuring collaborations, it seems the best are the unlikely ones that wind up over-performing.

Take ‘The Man That Never Was’ which has 80’s teen heart-throb Rick Springfield backed by the Foo Fighters. He legitimately rocks out, with The Foos giving him a coolness transfusion.

Similarly the teaming of Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor with Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen is an odd proposition. But it winds up splitting the difference, becoming an awesome goth-tinged power ballad.

‘Cut Me Some Slack‘, the Paul McCartney/Nirvana jam  is a fun sloppy rock treat, with McCartney giving one of his most impassioned vocal performances. You can feel the mutual admiration pushing their energy levels to the breaking point.

The most tender moment on the album is ‘If I Were Me’, featuring Grohl on vocals. Over plaintive acoustic guitars and piano, he evokes melancholy, conjuring the great memories of Sound City while lamenting the generic, soulless music that’s been created in its absence: ‘If that were me I’d wait forever…what’s your hurry?…Once upon a time/ the end.”

Luckily we have torch bearers like Grohl and his Sound City players as a substantive reminder that music is best made flaws and all, not with overly scrubbed pro-tools and auto-tune.

For those wishing to buy Sound City: Real to Reel, I have  iTunes or Amazon links below, as well as an iTunes link to buy/rent the documentary.

[amazon_image id=”B00B04KVMC” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Sound City: Real to Reel[/amazon_image]

You can also stream the album in full via NPR’s website.

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