I’m a big (casual) fan of the Foo Fighters.
The biggest disappointment with Sonic Highways may be not with the album itself but how it was positioned with the giant lead up to the release. Looking back on the collective discography of the band 10 years down the road I have to suspect the album would be viewed different. Coming off a several year hiatus, the band launched the album with a TV special that created a weekly build up: a song being released mixed in with secret shows and huge tour announcements. it became very easy to get caught up in this being a really great release. “The Foo Fighters are back! Sound City was an amazing documentary, these Sonic Highway episodes are really cool.”…. then you hear the songs. While they don’t have that instant grab or hook as say “Everlong” “Times Like These” or “Rope” the songs are all solid efforts but none seem to have that extra push that makes them stand out as a one of the band’s top songs.
Watching the show helped paint the picture of the album and I would recommend anyone – fan or non fan- watch the show early into your first few listens of the albums. Sonic Highways = great name for the TV show and while the lyrics might touch on each city, the music doesn’t nor does it even try to give a hint. Grohl directly addressed that in the Nashville episode suggesting one of the riffs they were working on sounded too country and not like Foo Fighters. Take “Congregation”, the Nashville song, while a solid Foo Fighters song – it would’ve been fun to hear a nod to country. Even older Foo songs such as “Wheels” have more of a country vibe showing that the band previously, when not focused on cities perhaps, were willing to branch their sound out.
To be fair, I’m writing this review three months post-release and songs such as “Something From Nothing” have really grown on me (perhaps due to their constant airplay). While I don’t like giving ratings numbers, on a top-point scale I would say the album as a whole moved up a solid two or so points –again I have to wonder if that’s in part to the TV show being wrapped up and gone is the pressure for the album to be something it isn’t.
