Are The Foo Fighters back?

To give the title to this post some context, I have been a fand of the Foo Fighters since the beginning, post-Nirvana with the release of the self titled Foo Fighters in 1995. The first 8 albums are still on a sporadic regular rotation of mine, at least a slection of tracks from each of them. I cannot fault any album up to this point.

I didn’t manage to get to see them live until 2008 when they played Wembley Stadium for the second night of the Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace tour where the Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin joined for “Rock and Roll” and “Ramble On” on the second night. The Waisting Light tour at Milton Keynes Bowl in 2011 supported by  Biffy Clyro and Jimmy Eat World was an awesome spectacle. As many would agree, Foo Fighters Live are something to behold. I did see Chris Shiflett’s band Jackson back in 2001 and was fortunate enough to have a five minute chat at the bar before going to the local metal club with him and his brother and a couple of others.

Sonic Highways was a stroke of genius – “Sonic Highways commemorates the Foo Fighters 20th anniversary by documenting the eight-city recording odyssey that produced their latest, and eighth, studio album.” (source imdb). Introducing different artists and different styles inspired by the cities and a the supporting film was just a great idea.

But then we have ‘Concete and Gold’ which I would have to hook out the record sleeve just to remember what songs were on it and relisten to even remember. ‘Medicine at Midnight’ isnt far off the same, it is collecting dust on the shelf as well, as is ‘But Here We Are’. None of these got close to the impact on me that ‘The Colour and the Shape’, ‘One by One’ or ‘Waisting Light’ did. I had to soul search a bit as maybe it was me, had my music tastes changed, had other bands just peaked my interest more? Many bands I follow have had an album that has not connected as well as they age and evolve, but three in a row? I just wanted a stand out track that would make the hairs on my arm and the back of my neck, a track that when seeing them live it would be criminal to leave out the setlist!

I obviously went to see them at The London Stadium for the ‘Everything or Nothing at All Tour’ and by no surprise they are as good as ever. They just stormed the stage and led a musical assault on all in attendance, think opening scene of The Prentender video. A fantastic setlist and a great day out had, but the new songs passed by me and if swapped out for some older classics would have lifted the roof …. more. This was not necessarily a shared opinion, friends who went had no quarms and loved that last album.

Fast forwrd to today and im listening to ‘Your favourite Toy’, the lastest release from the band from the upcoming album of the same name and I read from the recent interview with Zane Lowe, Dave Grohl stated they had hit a vien of gold.

“One night I was listening to all these ideas and just randomly, there were these 10 songs in a row in my playlist that were all just like noisy, loud bangers. Uptempo, like back to the old days. I was like, wait a minute, maybe this is the record.” (source Apple Music)

‘Your Favourite Toy’, instantly, even without the growl of Grohl a tthe start sounds like Foo Fighters track, they are not holding back, the vocals screech and scream, the guitars are most likely begging for mercy over the melodies. it’s the Foos!!!!. It’s like the ‘Everlong’ and ‘White Limo’ had a love child. If this is a precursor to rest of the album then ‘Are the Foo Fighters Back, yes they are. It’s just a shame that on the announced tour they are only playing two dates in Liverpool in the UK.

Update: From Dave Grohl himself on Graham Norton, “Theres only two shows in the UK, oh no, the real tour is a year and a half away from now”