Critical Reaction
Initial critical response to Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 71, based on 30 reviews.
Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Tom Sinclair considered that while the record was not ground-breaking, "the Foos have found a way to create their own archetype, with an instinctive feel for what constitutes a killer song", and praised "how damn near flawless the tone of the whole set feels". Rolling Stone's David Fricke praised the sonic variety, described by him as "an anthology of strong new songs by a great bunch of bands, all calling themselves Foo Fighters". Jessica Letkemann of Billboard was acceptive of the "delicious sundown grooves" of the quieter piece and "the Foos' usual soft-louder-loudest 'radio friendly unit shifters'" - referencing a track of Nirvana's In Utero - while considering "Home" the only disappointing track. Robert Christgau rated the album a B, describing it as a "candid attempt to recapitulate Nirvana Mark II's 10-year-old triumph, The Colour and the Shape". Dave Simpson of The Guardian called Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace the band's "most accomplished album", praising the composition and saying that "Gil Norton's stunning production can't disguise the raw humanity beneath the sheen".
A few critics considered the album not as inspired as the band's previous work. Kyle Anderson of Spin wrote that "two-thirds of these tracks sound a lot like songs Grohl has done before", considering that album's strengths came from "the handful of songs that deviate from the wallop'n'wail template". Allmusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine also felt the rock songs were not as remarkable "compared to the almost effortlessly engaging melodies of the softer songs", ultimately describing Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace as "just another Foo Fighters album instead of the consolidation of strengths that it was intended to be". Pitchfork Media's Adam Moerder considered that the album "feels like a retread" and that the band was "sounding less and less relatable", with innefective acoustic tracks and rock songs that "sound cold and detached compared to heart-wrenching Foo pop gems like 'Big Me' or 'Everlong'". While Sputnikmusic reviewer John Hanson was acceptive of the rock songs, where he felt "the boys are most comfortable", he considered that the songwriting "has just become stale" and ultimately described Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace as "extremely boring and uninspired". PopMatters' Josh Timmermann was very critical of the overtly serious tone of the record compared to the lighthearted work the band had done before, joking that the title of "Cheer Up, Boys" "sounds like the suggestion of a concerned fan for a band he or she used to actually care about."
Read more about this topic: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Reception
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