Personnel: Kaki King, Pat Smear (guitar); Rami Jaffee (accordion, keyboards); Taylor Hawkins (piano, background vocals); Dave Grohl (piano); Drew Hester (percussion).

Additional personnel: Brantley Kearns Jr. (fiddle); Chris Shiflett, Kaki King, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, Drew Hester.

Audio Mixer: Rich Costey.

Recording information: Studio 606, Northridge, CA.

Photographers: Laura Kleinhenz; Ben Watts.

ECHOES, SILENCE, PATIENCE & GRACE, the Foo Fighters' sixth effort, upholds the band's allegiance to melody-heavy post-grunge power pop driven by roaring guitars and Dave Grohl's fine songwriting. The Foos are aided by super-producer Gil Norton this time out (Norton also helped craft the group's second, and arguably best, album, THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE). The result is a polished yet powerful outing that proves the Foos have earned their status as one of alternative rock's most reliable acts.

But while tunes like "The Pretender" pack a hard-rock wallop, the real surprises on ECHOES are the softer songs. The breezy, folky "Summer's End," for example, is a standout, as is Grohl's solo acoustic performance on "Stranger Things Have Happened." This isn't to say the Foo Fighters have mellowed--the album contains as much amplified snarl as any of their others--but here the quieter moments rival the rockers, revealing a band whose intimate, earnest moments are as convincing as their head-banging ones.