Best of Foo: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

As the In Your Honor tour had both acoustic and electric shows, frontman Dave Grohl discussed with RCA Music Group president Clive Davis on how "it'd be so cool" if the Foo Fighters were the band that did those different shows that appealed to specific audiences "and they wouldn't necessarily have to go to both", to which Davis replied that "you can do both together". Grohl took this advice when composing his following album, which would mix both styles on its songs.[3] Grohl also stated that "The idea now is to step up and make [The Zombies'] Odessey and Oracle"[4]

In an interview with XFM on April 26, 2007, Grohl noted,

"We've been in the studio for the past month and a half, and we've got about another month to go. We've been recording with our friend Gil Norton. He worked on our second record, he's a good guy. And he makes amazing albums, so we're making a really big powerful record, which I'm very excited about... I can't wait to jump on stage and do this stuff, it's gonna be great."[5]

Preparation was extensive: first Grohl spent two weeks with Norton discussing "arrangements, harmony and melody" and reducing the song ideas, and then the band spent four weeks rehearsing, playing "a song a day, from noon to midnight".[4]

Kaki King makes a guest appearance on "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners". The instrumental was written by Grohl prior to a meeting with one of the miners involved in the Beaconsfield mine collapse.[6]

The album's first single, "The Pretender", was released on September 17, 2007 to CD single; however, it was released as a music download and for radio play in August 2007, preceding the album launch.[7] "Long Road to Ruin" was released as the second single in December 2007.

The album's title comes from a lyric on the album's final song, "Home". The cover art was made by Invisible Creature, and features a combination between a torpedo and a guitar amplifier tube to juxtapose the weapon "with another object that traditionally wasn’t associated with war or violence". The remainder of the album sleeve has similar juxtapositions of objects "that reflected the album’s tone of life and mortality".[8] Source