Concrete and Gold

Concrete and Gold is the ninth studio album by Foo Fighters, released in September 2017 on RCA/Roswell Records and produced by Greg Kurstin. It is the most sonically diverse album of the band's catalog, drawing on the widest range of production approaches and featuring guest appearances from Paul McCartney (drums on 'Sunday Rain') and Justin Timberlake (backing vocals). Grohl wrote all material; the album's production by Kurstin (who had recently produced Adele's 25 and Sia's '1000 Forms of Fear') brought a pop production sensibility to the band's rock foundation that generated mixed reactions from longtime fans while expanding the album's commercial accessibility. 'Run,' 'Make It Right,' and 'The Sky Is a Neighborhood' were the principal tracks; the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 117,000 first-week units, the band's first number-one album in the United States. Concrete and Gold has been certified platinum and represents one of the more commercially adventurous production decisions in the band's catalog, a willingness to work with a pop producer and integrate pop production techniques while maintaining the rock energy of the core material. The album's number-one debut, the band's first in the United States, represented a commercial milestone that confirmed their ability to generate peak commercial results nearly a quarter-century into their career, and the Kurstin collaboration's mixed reception demonstrated the creative risks inherent in importing pop production sensibilities into a band whose identity was rooted in a specifically rock-oriented aesthetic.