Album Review — Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl — Play
So I may be stretching it a bit by calling this an album review, but technically you can buy an LP of “Play” with one track on it, so I say it counts.
“Play” is a 23 minute instrumental with Grohl playing all the instruments. It is billed as one song but the track could be broken down into multiple sections that have little interludes between them. It almost sounds as if these were multiple song ideas that got combined into one long instrumental.
Each part of the song is different and reminds me of different bands. The first band that clearly comes to mind is Rush. There’s some Zeppelin in there, some Queens of the Stone Age, and of course, some Foo Fighters. I’m sure you will hear different bands in there as well.
There are multiple times throughout the song that I expect Grohl’s famous growl but it’s nowhere to be found. This is strictly instruments. Grohl is clearly making a point here about the playing of instruments as art but the song is begging for Grohl’s voice.
Grohl is accomplishing so much in this one project. First, if you watch the video on YouTube (which you should) it starts off by shining a light on the importance of music for children and focuses on one specific studio. There’s 8 minutes or so of interviews and Grohl’s voice talking about the importance of music. Grohl is a great storyteller and these first 8 minutes set the stage for the song itself.
But Grohl is also combating our collective lack of attention spans. In a world where there are so many distractions most don’t take the time to listen to a song all the way through, let alone a 23 minute instrumental. But Grohl is using his fame to push us, and that’s a good thing. I consider myself a big music fan but 23 minutes is a long time and I found myself being tempted to check my phone as the song moved from one part to the next. It was a challenge to stay engaged and it was worth the effort.
It’s hard to review a 23 minute track and there’s so much more here than the song itself. So I’ll just say this is important. Grohl is a very good musician that continues to push himself musically. And more than that, he’s pushing us, both as music listeners and as people. Grohl really is one of the good guys.
Grade — 95 out of 100
Track Listing
- Play