So here it finally is, the tenth studio album by the American rockers „Foo Fighters“ is finally here and I gotta say, I haven’t been this confused about an album in a while. On one hand, it’s easily their most experimental and groovy record thus far, but then here I am on the other hand wondering, if that is really a good thing.
So yeah, this album is very much a „hit-or-miss“ kind of expirience. The singles released prior to the album’s release all left me with very mixed feelings and after hearing the whole album, that still hasn’t changed much. To kind of take it track-by-track, we have the radio-ready opener „Making A Fire“, which really is more of a spark then a whole fire – the song immidiately screams car comercial music, though not entirely in a bad way, we have seen much more miserable attempts at making such music in recent memory *cough* Green Day *cough*. One saving grace this song has is it’s instant catchiness and also that, that at the end of the day, it still feels remarkably Foo Fighters, no matter how poppy it sounds. The following track „Shame Shame“ was also the first released single for this album and wow, what a weird choice for a first single – it is easily one of the Foo Fighters most disjointed songs to date, with the weird beat incorporating handclaps and other weird percussion elements, the kind of rough around the edges groove and the overly repetetive chorus – it comes of kind of pretentious, even though the strings that are added in on the chorus are quite a nice touch. The following „Cloudspotter“ is easily one of the worst songs here and there are many reasons to that, but in the end it boils down to two things – one being the at places just AWFUL lyrics and the extremely cheezy chorus, that I legitimately can’t handle. „Waiting On A War“ thankfully picks things up a bit, as it is easily my favorite single released prior to this thing, it’s just this nice introspective accoustic ballad with an instrumental build up and freak out at the end – there is just this anthemic atmosphere going through out and it serves as a much needed break in the album. Following that is probably the grooviest song on the album, the title track „Medicine at Midnight“ which is actually also one of my favorites here – it has this nice lushes instrumental with some funky guitars and weird beat switch-ups and these haunting background vocals, it just comes full circle pretty well. The third and final single released from this „No Son Of Mine“ is probably the heaviest of the three and has this arena stadium feel to it, while still not going full Imagine Dragons – it is also one of the more instant songs on the album, but unfortunately it’s charm quickly weares off. The song „Holding Poison“ is probably the most „old-school Foo Fighters“ song on here, with the addition of some nice synths and an epic guitar solo halfway through, it honestly is like the whole package of a song. The album looses it’s track again though on the following „Chasing Birds“, which is another contester for the worst song on this album for me, it just feels pretty bland and uninspired, the subject matter is really portraited in an non-specific way and it’s just all over the place. The closing track „Love Dies Young“ thankfully ends thing on a high-note with some heavy riffs, Dave Grohl’s iconic rasper vocals and an anthemic tone, it serves as a great closer to this album.
So yeah, the new Foo Fighters, it’s uh… Alright, I guess? Look, I’m gonna be completely transparent here, this was kind of a disapointment for me. Foo Fighters is a band I hold very dear to my heart, so there obviously is a bit of bias for me, but through and through, this is just a mediocre effort from the band – there are some highlights, for sure, I can praise this record for having a ton of variety compared to the rest of the band’s catalog, but that being said, it doesn’t make it an overall statisfying listen. Still, if you haven’t listened to it, then please give it a go, your opinnion may very much differ from mine’s and you may find much more enjoyment out of it then I did.
Strong 5/10