![\"Violet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Violet-Grohl-Be-Sweet-To-Me-_-Album-Art-Art-direction-design-by-Samuel-Burgess-Johnson.jpg\")
Review: Violet Grohl\u2019s debut album \u201cBe Sweet To Me\u201d blends alternative rock influences, sharp songwriting, and fearless experimentation into a confident first statement. \u2013 Author: Lucy Grindons, Art direction & design by Samuel Burgess-Johnson.<\/p>\n
Being the child of a rock icon can feel like walking into a room where everyone has already decided who you are. The trick is giving them a reason to stop thinking about your last name.<\/p>\n
On her debut album, \u201cBe Sweet To Me,\u201d Violet Grohl<\/a> does exactly that.\u00a0The record arrives carrying plenty of curiosity and inevitable expectations, but what stands out almost immediately is how little interest Grohl seems to have in playing a predictable role. Yes, the album pulls from familiar alternative rock touchstones. You can hear echoes of the Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, Soundgarden, and a dozen other artists who helped make weirdness feel cool in the late \u201980s and early \u201990s. But \u201cBe Sweet To Me\u201d never feels like a tribute act assembled from a favorite record collection.<\/p>\n Violet Grohl, \u2018Be Sweet to Me\u2019 Review<\/p>\n Instead, it feels like the work of someone who has spent years obsessively listening.\u00a0Recorded with producer Justin Raisen at his Los Angeles home studio, the album carries a loose, organic quality that suits Grohl\u2019s instincts. There\u2019s a lived-in feel to these songs, as if they were discovered rather than manufactured. You can hear musicians reacting to one another in real time, chasing ideas down strange hallways and occasionally kicking open doors just to see what\u2019s behind them.<\/p>\n More news:\u00a0Paul McCartney, \u2018The Boys of Dungeon Lane\u2019 Review \u2014 A Career Triumph<\/a><\/p>\n That spirit is all over the album\u2019s standout tracks.\u00a0\u201cTHUM\u201d<\/a> arrives with the kind of jagged energy that feels both aggressive and playful. \u201c595\u201d<\/a> leans into atmosphere without losing its grip on melody, while \u201cCool Buzz\u201d<\/a> captures the record\u2019s sweet spot between fuzzed-out guitars and pop instincts. Even when the songs flirt with chaos, there\u2019s always a strong melodic backbone holding everything together.<\/p>\n The real strength of \u201cBe Sweet To Me,\u201d though, is its sense of curiosity.\u00a0Grohl has described bringing wildly different inspiration playlists into the studio, pulling from everything from trip-hop and new wave to Scandinavian black metal, folk, and vocal jazz. That could easily result in a scattered album. Instead, those influences surface like passing conversations rather than competing agendas.<\/p>\n The result is a record that constantly shifts shape without losing its identity.\u00a0The newly released \u201cBug in the Cake\u201d may be one of the album\u2019s best examples of that balancing act. It feels playful and slightly off-center, carrying just enough tension beneath the surface to keep things interesting. Like much of the album, it sounds comfortable being a little strange.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s where Grohl separates herself from a lot of young artists making retro-inspired music right now. She isn\u2019t recreating a specific era. She\u2019s borrowing pieces from several of them and finding her own route through the noise.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also an appealing lack of polish here\u2014not in execution, but in attitude. Nothing feels overly calculated. The songs breathe. The rough edges stay intact. The album trusts listeners enough to leave a few fingerprints on the glass.<\/p>\n For a debut, that\u2019s a surprisingly confident move.\u00a0\u201cBe Sweet To Me\u201d doesn\u2019t arrive with the desperate energy of an artist trying to prove herself. It sounds more like someone opening the door to her musical world and inviting people inside if they\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n As introductions go, it\u2019s a strong one. Not because it answers every question about who Violet Grohl is as an artist, but because it leaves you curious about where she\u2019s headed next.<\/p>\n
Lucy Grindons is a news reporter for Audio Ink Radio. She’s been a music buff her whole life, and she’s thrilled to join the AIR team. Grindons has interviewed countless rising alternative rock acts, and she covers alt rock, classic rock and metal for Audio Ink Radio. She also has a strong background in national and world news and also reports on hard news for Audio Ink Radio.<\/p>\n \t\tPost navigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Review: Violet Grohl\u2019s debut album \u201cBe Sweet To Me\u201d blends alternative rock influences, sharp songwriting, and fearless experimentation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[40226,93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-482208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-dave-grohl","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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