The Alt-Rock collective return with their signature sound, but is it becoming stagnant?

When the news first broke that the Foo Fighters were coming to Liverpool this summer, I knew I had to get tickets. I’ve never had the chance to see them before, and now they were on my doorstep there was no excuse. Influenced in part by my delusions of a Paul McCartney cameo like when Bruce Springsteen visited, I managed to get tickets to both dates. I imagine a fair amount of the songs from Your Favourite Toy will be played on tour, so in preparation for the summer, I pressed play.

A lot of the album immediately feels pretty familiar. Of course, the Foo Fighters have their own sound, but a lot of these songs feel incredibly similar to some of their previous releases, just perhaps missing the edge that these earlier recordings had. A fair few songs would come on and I’d think, ‘oh, this one sounds like their other song from 20 years ago’. There’s still some decent variety within the album, ranging from the punk-influenced ‘Spit Shine’ to the slower and moodier ‘Window’. Not every song is exactly the same, but there’s certainly some that are similar.  After a certain amount of time, bands risk becoming stagnant, and I can’t help but feel that with this album, the Foo Fighters are coming close with some of the songs.

For some reason, bad lyrics have always stood out to me more than good ones, at least on the first listen. There’s a few points in this album that I think lyrically could have been a lot stronger. The verses in ‘Of All People’ could have been much stronger, especially so early on in the album. Not only that, but they’re pretty repetitive. The opening lyric of ‘Your Favourite Toy’ was just cringe, which is a shame because the rest of the song is pretty good, but for me it sets a negative tone for the rest of the song. ‘Child Actor’ is probably the strongest lyrically, reflecting on Dave Grohl’s need for validation in the spotlight. The strength of the verses is somewhat let down by the chorus. The line ‘turn the cameras off’ is repeated 46 times in under 4 minutes, which, by my standards at least, is a few too many. At least I’ll have the lyrics down if they play it in the summer.

A few of the songs have some interesting production choices. ‘Of All People’ in particular felt pretty flat, with nothing jumping out the mix, the vocals not quite getting lost but not really standing out. The drums on ‘Spit Shine’ are nowhere near punchy enough for the song for me. The kick got completely lost at times, and the cymbals clashed with the heavy vocal distortion so they couldn’t be heard. 

The bass gets a bit lost on a few songs too, and it would have been nice for it to be pushed up a little more. There’s also just a bit too much vocal distortion on some songs. I love a bit of vocal distortion, but not to a point where it begins to become unpleasant as it does on a couple of the tracks. I can’t help but feel like the mixing let this album down a little. It has the potential to sound so much bigger, but it just falls flat.

One of my favourites is ‘Unconditional’, mostly because it stands out from the rest. It’s a little more stripped back than the heavy walls of guitar they use in most songs, and each individual part can be heard much more than the rest of the album. It has a sadder sounding verse with an uplifting chorus, and a strong bassline that can be heard clearly, unlike many of the other songs.

Despite my criticisms, this isn’t a bad album. It’s pretty good, but given their back catalogue and the power they command within the industry, you can’t help but be left expecting a little more. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the album overall, and it has grown on me more the more I’ve listened to it. New music always prepares you well for a tour, and I’m looking forward to hearing a few of the tracks alongside the classics in a (hopefully) sunny Anfield in June.