"Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" offers a mix of both electric and acoustic songs, which Grohl likened to the band growing older and "comfortable with all kinds of music" instead of just focusing on straight rock songs, saying that listening to the album he felt like "we've gotten over our insecurities, because it presents us in a way that we probably hid in the past." Grohl also stated that "the idea now is to step up and make [The Zombies'] "Odessey and Oracle"" - the album he claimed to have listened the most during production - and that "it has always been my dream to mix Steely Dan with Nomeansno." Amidst the number of heavier tracks and themes Grohl decided to include the song "Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)", described as "the most light-hearted, melodic song of all" which "seemed like a little ray of hope in the middle of all this despair." Grohl added that there was a bigger focus on melodies even in heavier tracks such as "The Pretender", "Let It Die" and "Erase/Replace", and that album closer "Home", a ballad featuring Grohl on the piano, was "the best song I've ever written".