FOO FIGHTERS
FOO FIGHTERS:
Dave Grohl: Vocals, Guitars
Taylor Hawkins: Drums, Vocals
Chris Shiflett: Guitars
Nate Mandell: Bass Guitars
Pat Smear: Guitars
Music by Foo Fighters
Lyrics by Dave Grohl
Produced by Butch Vig and Foo Fighters
Released November 10, 2014
From one of rock and roll's most durable and dependable acts comes one of 2014's most ambitious releases.
With this year marking the 20th anniversary of Foo Fighters, bandleader/singer/guitarist Dave Grohl wanted to celebrate this milestone by recording an album in what might possibly be an unprecedented fashion. Re-enlisting the masterful producing aid of Butch Vig, the band traveled around the country to eight different cities to eight different recording studios to record one song per visit. To add to the potential musical alchemy, Grohl documented the entire experience on film while also holding and filming interviews with key musical figures within each city, allowing all of the conversations and geographical locations to inform the writing of the lyrics, which Grohl held off from composing until the final day of the band's visits. The results of Grohl's documentations can now be seen weekly on HBO in the powerfully outstanding series "Sonic Highways" and of course, this very album that houses the same title.
In my opening "Session Notes" for this month, I have already described to you my ecstatic feelings towards the television program which has performed an incredible duty of merging the making of an album, an autobiographical odyssey and the showcasing an oral history of certain avenues of American music into a seamless and inspiring whole. How Grohl has carefully and lovingly presented the connective tissue that not only exists between a variety of musical genres but between the musicians themselves, regardless of age, gender and race (and especially illustrating just how deeply African American culture has influenced every musical genre) has made "Sonic Highways" nothing less than essential viewing each week.
As for the album itself, does it musically match the majesty that I have seen on screen each week? Well...let me explain...
Then entire "Sonic Highways" project feels as if it is the next logical progression in the Foo Fighters canon. Where "Wasting Light" (released April 12, 2011) found the band recording at Grohl's Virginia home to analog tape, that experience easily surged forwards to Grohl's excellent "Sound City" (2013) motion picture documentary, and equally excellent accompanying album "Sound City: Real To Reel" (released March 12, 2013), which found the members of Foo Fighters again recording to analog tape and working in a variety of fruitful and even surprising musical collaborations, from songs composed and performed by Lee Ving ("Your Wife Is Calling") and Rick Springfield ("The Man That Never Was") were two massive highlights and Stevie Nicks' "You Can't Fix This" was easily her most towering song in many years.
"Sonic Highways" takes the concepts of "Wasting Light" and "Sound City" even further as the band travels all around the United States so I have to admit to a certain feeling of being initially underwhelmed when I began to hear tracks from the album during the concluding sequences of the television program. Now, there's no question that the music itself is as exuberantly and enthusiastically performed as anything we have ever heard from Foo Fighters. There's no way to hear these tracks and think that the band is just phoning it all in. Where I was beginning to feel a tad let down was in the sonic sameness of the new tracks as compared to songs from the past. I could not really tell much difference to all that had come before and because of those feelings, I began to fear that the new album would fall a bit short of its ambitious reach.
But, don't count the Foos out just yet...
If you do rewind to the Session Notes of this site for this month and read (or re-read) my experience with the album's first single "Something From Nothing," I can tell you that I experienced the exact same feelings while hearing the al;bum's second and third tracks, "The Feast And The Famine," recorded in Washington D.C. and "Congregation," recorded in Nashville and with some accompaniment from guitarist Zac Brown. In both instances, I knew these were good songs but just not different enough. Or at least, what I may have been expecting or even hoping to hear from this band who was obviously attempting to allow the regional flavor of each city inform the songs. It wasn't really until watching the episodes and seeing how Grohl's lyrics were born from the stories told to him (and to us in the audience) that I began to see the power contained within the songs themselves. Even so, "Sonic Highways" the album has to work for those listeners who either can't see the HBO series or just aren't that interested in it anyway. The songs need to work independently of the means in which they came to be.
The true test for me arrived when I purchased the album only having heard those first three songs, ones that I had not been impressed by initially but soon grew on me tremendously. In fact, before I even placed the album into my CD player, I recalled just how the melodies of "The Feast And The Famine" and "Congregation" had somehow welded themselves into my brain, especially only having heard each of them a couple of times. Once I began to listen to the album (as always, while driving), I was immediately struck by how beautifully produced and arranged the songs truly are. Even through their sheer bombastic sound, there is an exquisite depth and clarity to all of the instruments, no small feat as Foo Fighters stand five men strong (or six, if you count keyboardist Remi Jaffee), with three guitarists and special guest musicians to boot. Every sound has its specific place, Taylor Hawkins' drums have a perfectly full yet dry snap that makes me want to fit a drum kit quickly and Dave Grohl again shows that he is one of modern rock's very best vocalists.
As for the songs themselves, at first, I did notice even more that the songs so not sonically sound remotely regional or very different from past albums. But all of that being said, "Sonic Highways" just may be the very best Foo Fighters album due to how much better the band has grown as songwriters and performers. Within these eight songs, the band have crafted their tightest, leanest collection yet ensuring that there is not one wasted moment and not even one superfluous song. It is an album that feels excitingly complete and it is also their most emotionally satisfying album since "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" (released September 25, 2007).
I think "Sonic Highways" began to sink in for me during the album's fourth track, the two part recorded in Austin, Texas suite "What Did I Do?/God As My Witness" as again the melodies grabbed me instantly and special guest Gary Clark's Jr.'s outro guitar solo sent me soaring. Even better was the Los Angeles recorded "Outside" starring Nate Mendel's marathon runner, endlessly open road bass playing combined with guest Joe Walsh's space cowboy guitar solo. I think here was the point in the album, where I found myself not trying to be too focused upon where the tracks were recorded as to how good the songs actual were. And these songs were especially good songs.
Despite my stance to not focus too heavily on location, I did try to make myself play a bit of a guessing game with the album's final three songs, especially as those episodes have not aired yet. "In The Clear" with lyrics pertaining to "water" and of course, "the Second Line," it could only have been recorded in New Orleans. And again, while I was hoping for a bit of added funk to the proceedings (especially with the added presence of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band--who admittedly are not obviously audible), I cannot expect the Foo Fighters to become who they simply are not designed to be. But again, when the melodies, harmonies and chorus are as bright as the shining sun as they are on this song, it is just futile for me to complain.
The album's final two selections are whoppers. The dark cloudy skies of "Subterranean" featuring Nate Mendel's dream world bass playing and some spiraling spectral spirits of E-bow guitars floating through the proceedings, I can imagine the perpetually rainy landscape of Seattle. This is a brooding, murky track as if the band wanted to craft their version of "Comfortably Numb" era Pink Floyd (yes, a British reference but still...).
With "I Am A River," the album's appropriately grand finale, Foo Fighters have essentially crafted their own "Love Reign O'er Me" (yes, another British reference) as this track is an orchestral sky scorcher. In fact, the whole nearly Broadway-esque grandeur of the piece suggests that this one was recorded in New York and actually, I could not help but to surprisingly think of "I Sing The Body Electric," itself the grand rock/gospel/orchestral hybrid finale of Director Alan Parker's classic New York teen art performance high school musical "Fame" (1980). Dear readers and listeners, I cannot help it. I was moved. Very much so.
For their eight album, I truly believe that Foo Fighters truly accomplished what they set out to achieve and I do believe that they should be proud of their efforts. As a rock album, it is one of the stronger efforts of 2014 by far and while Dave Grohl may take some lumps for his lyrics which may be a little too on the nose here and there, I truly commend him for taking on such an artistic challenge with such obvious grit, passion and commitment, qualities that are really in short supply these days. Because let's face it, when U2 is lambasted and criticized for supposedly "devaluing music" by giving away their latest album for free and Taylor Swift is seen as the industry rebel, music does not have much to stand on when it comes to credibility.
All of that being said, I do think that it it time for Foo Fighters to really challenge themselves artistically. There's no question about their superior musicianship but if I could wave my magic wand in a way where they could hear me and listen to me (as if I were a producer), I would urge them to completely get outside (ha ha) of their own comfort zone and make an album unlike they have ever made before.
There is a recent photo that I have happened to see of the Foo Fighters performing live with Trombone Shorty. Just imagine the real collaboration those two forces could come up with. Unfiltered and jubilant collaboration. For a band who once titled an album "There Is Nothing Left To Lose," it is time for the Foo Fighters to really prove it by making an album that musically shows that they truly have nothing to lose and everything to gain from the experience. It is time for Foo Fighters to make their "White Album," their "Achtung Baby!," an album that continues their evolution and re-invents them in the process.
Record to analog tape again certainly, even use Butch Vig again if you wish and definitely keep collaborating with your heroes and other musical figures. But that's it. Don't record in Grohl's home. Go out into the desert perhaps or any unfamiliar location and just let your freak flags fly. Create nine minute epics to crash alongside one minute punk rock thrashes and then zig-zag into pop songs and hard rock slammers. Do a full on country song. Do a song with no guitars at all. How about instrumentals or even songs that are built from completely different recordings a la Frank Zappa (i.e. take Grohl's guitars from one source and marry them with Hawkins' drums from a completely different recording regardless of tempo) and see what magic arrives. Dabble even further with vocal interplay and stacked harmonies. Allow Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel to also create tracks that showcase their respective talents like on Yes' "Fragile" (released January 4, 1972) or Living Colour's "Time's Up" (released August 20, 1990). Trade instruments and even lead vocals as well. Do anything that really shakes you up and then carve it all into a double album, a truly '70s era double album full of color and flash, vision and massive volume. Don't worry if the fans will "get it." Don't worry abut becoming Radiohead. Just be the Foo Fighters and go for it! We've been with you for 20 years, we'll still be here.
For now, we do have "Sonic Highways." If you do have the means, I cannot urge you enough to watch this beautiful series. As for the music itself, Foo Fighters have given us one of their strongest releases to date, even through the familiarity which is indeed more finely honed and executed than ever before.
These eight songs are not stadium rockers for the band to sing to us. These are celebratory American anthems designed for us to sing together.
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