Album Review: Sound City Players - Sound City: Real To Reel

Go ahead; just have a read of the back sleeve of this record. Tell me you can get to the end of this album without feeling a tingle in your pants. This is baby-making stuff, folks. Rock'n'roll baby-making stuff.

The names that span this album's 11 songs are the cream of the crop. Stevie Nicks, Corey Taylor, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor, Paul McCartney and Rick Springfield all appear, and with Butch Vig in the producer's seat, aurally Sound City: Real To Reel could never fail. But this is a Dave Grohl project, a Dave Grohl passion, a Dave Grohl record, and as such the delivery, structure and scope of it are delivered with predictable Dave Grohl brilliance.

To focus on the background of the album – the accompaniment of a Grohl-directed film about Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, which closed its doors in 2011 after recording everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Slipknot – would be doing a massive injustice to the quality of the songs on the album. Kicking off with a bang, with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes teaming up with Grohl for Heaven And All, the thumping scene is set for the rest of the record. Taylor is subdued (compared to his usual Slipknot guise) but lets his singing voice shine on From Can To Can't, and epic closer Mantra – featuring the all-star triple threat of Grohl, Homme and Reznor, is one of the best things you'll hear all year.

If there was a prize for 'Best Rock Album That Accompanies A Movie and Features Amazing Famous Musicians', then Dave Grohl and his Sound City Players would have no competition. Fucking great.