When it was announced that Paul McCartney was due to collaborate with the remaining members of Nirvana, it sounded like a sick joke. As it turned out, the unlikely quartet’s performance of new song ‘Cut Me Some Slack’ at a Hurricane Sandy benefit was a hard-riffing good time. And it was a sign of things to come.

On the soundtrack for Dave Grohl’s new documentary about Sound City Studios in LA, Grohl himself is the only constant, as he performs with 11 different combinations of seriously big league musicians. McCartney might be the biggest, but only just, as he is joined by Stevie Nicks, Trent Reznor, Josh Homme and members of Slipknot, Rage Against The Machine, the Foo Fighters and – fittingly – The Travelling Wilburys. Appropriately for an album celebrating the studio that birthed Rumours, Nevermind and After The Gold Rush, it was recorded on the original Sound City desk, and for the most part Reel To Real is worthy of that heritage. ‘Cut Me Some Slack’ is an entertaining curio, but Stevie Nicks’s witchy ‘You Can’t Fix This’ is an excellent addition to her discography. Corey Taylor of Slipknot stars on the broiling ‘From Can To Can’t’. And you get Grohl, Reznor and Homme in one song on the superb closer ‘Mantra’.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys the sound of rock royalty
cutting loose.