If you practically owed your career to a process of recording music whose origin many credited to a specific recording studio, how would you introduce a tribute record for that studio? That would be a pretty big question if you weren't Dave Grohl, one of modern music's most influential figures, known for his work with Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Tenacious D and the Foo Fighters, among others. One would think that such an illustrious musician would need many words to sum up the entire project. On the contrary, Grohl calls on American classic rock singer Tom Petty to introduce the first song with five words: "Sound City. That's it, man."

The album in question, which hit record stores on March 12, is Sound City-Real to Reel. the soundtrack to Grohl's directorial debut, Sound City. The film stresses the importance of tape-based studios like Van Nuys California's Sound City and the tangible, natural music that comes from recording at a studio of this kind. Leave it to Grohl to call on the absolute biggest names in rock and roll to create such an album. Real to Reel features Stevie Nicks, Paul McCartney, the surviving members of Nirvana, Rick Springfield, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and of course, the ever-faithful Foo Fighters, among many, many other notable musicians.

When listening to Real to Reel, it is important to recall that because every track was composed and recorded especially for Sound City, the record is in fact a soundtrack, and therefore must be viewed as such. Some of the album's tracks are significantly stronger and thus are played in full in the film, while only portions of others are utilized.

When working with all these established performers, Grohl and his team combined originality with familiarity and were able to elicit new takes on old styles. "The Man that Never Was," featuring Rick Springfield and the Foo Fighters, one of the album's highlights, sounds grungy, yet echoes a Springfield pop hit, like "Jessie's Girl" and "I've Done Everything For You." The head-banger, "Your Wife is Calling," which features Fear's Lee Ving on lead vocals, could be right at home on his band's breakthrough The Record. Perhaps one of the most special and unexpected moments of Real to Reel is the Nirvana reunion fronted by ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney on the drop-D sludge of "Cut Me Some Slack," written in a two-hour studio session by Maca and Nirvana.

However, the album is not just an one hour-long grunge jam through which Grohl can relive the glory days with all his superstar pals. As expected, due to the huge variety of musical background on Real to Reel. the sounds are truly all over the place. Songs like "From Can to Can't" a softer, 70s pop-based tune, driven by Stevie Nicks, and the acoustic "Centipede," which features vocals by session musician Alain Johannes, show the lighter side of the album. On the other side of the spectrum, "Mantra," an all-out jam featuring Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Trent Reznor and "From Can to Can't," starring special guests Rick Nielsen on guitar and Slipknot singer Corey Taylor are slow cookers that end in an explosion of guitar, bass drums, keyboards and screaming vocals.
Sound City-Real to Reel is much more than your average album.

It is essentially Dave Grohl's doctoral thesis as a musician: material proof that all you need to make raw, pure, unadulterated music is to strap on a guitar and start jamming. That connection between every musician on every track is so clear in the tone and the liveliness of the musicianship on Real to Reel. One can hope that Dave Grohl's mission to honor the famous recording studio will not end with this record but continue to thrive in the music world for years to come.