‘Sonic Highways’ is the new album from Foo Fighters. It is just part of what has been a multi-media effort, with an HBO series of the same title chronicling its unusual recording. As for the music itself, the critics are weighing in. Find out what they have to say.
Dave Grohl is the founder and frontman of Foo Fighters and has always been a trail blazer dating back to his Nirvana days. So when one imagines an album of eight songs recorded in eight different studios in eight different cities in the U.S. and the entire odyssey captured by cameras and lighting up the small screen, namely on HBO, it’s not a surprise that he might be a part of such a project.
It’s ambitious and it’s a much different approach to an album in an era in which “approaches” increasingly are what make the difference. Whether it’s the success of an unprecedented surprise album from Beyonce’s or Taylor Swift’s re-branding which paid off in giving her the biggest debut sales week of an album since 2002, there are always new forms of marketing and promotion to explore.
Foo Fighters’ ‘Sonic Highway’ is the band’s 8th album and it is the opposite of surprise as its arrival has been long telescoped. As noted, cameras followed Dave Grohl and band members Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear to eight different cities for recording sessions in eight different studios. It begs the question, does the change in geography and musical culture make for a recording more unique and more authentic? The band did not leave it as a rhetorical question, of course, and we have songs from New Orleans, Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Austin and Washington, DC.
So what do the critics think of the album itself? Here’s a roundup.
“….It was designed as a multi-media, multi-studio extravaganza: Grohl and bandmates Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear recorded a song apiece in eight cities with local musicians sitting in, and Grohl directed an eight-part cable-TV series documenting each session. The series, so far, has been excellent. But if the idea was for Foo Fighters to pick up some of the vibe, musical and otherwise, in locales such as Chicago, Austin and Nashville, it doesn’t really work. An innocent listener wouldn’t have any clue that “In the Clear” was recorded in New Orleans, even though the Preservation Hall Jazz Band adds some horns, or that “Congregation” came to life in Nashville, even with Zac Brown adding some guitar……” — Chicago Tribune
“….When it comes to making music, location matters, but only up to a point, and ‘Sonic Highways’ can sometimes resemble a guidebook about a vast American cultural tapestry, related through the somewhat reductive medium of power chords.
Still, as a crowd-pleasing stadium-rock record, it largely delivers. ‘Something From Nothing’ is an archetypal lead single in the mould of ‘Best Of You’ or ‘The Pretender’, accelerating from slowburn introspection to Grohl’s eventual ursine roar of “F–k it all, I came from nothing”. Elsewhere, the contemplative ‘Subterranean’ – recorded in the Seattle studio where the first Foo Fighters session took place in 1994 – finds him reflecting on the grunge era and his own anxieties about moving on from it….” — NME
“…All of the cities the band chose – from Washington and Chicago to New Orleans and Nashville – have fascinating musical stories, and they’re told brilliantly through the medium of TV interviews with the likes of Buddy Guy and Steve Albini. Sadly, said stories are not quite as fascinating when told through the medium of the music of Foo Fighters. ….” — The Guardian
“….On Sonic Highways, the references to Muddy Waters on “Something from Nothing” or the Bluebird Cafe on the album’s best track, “Congregation”, are more forced and distracting than inspired. Other lyrics are worse, like “beautiful earthling, blessed in cashmere” on the L.A. song, “Outside”. That track manages to capture some of the essence of the West Coast city, but the details of “canyons” and “sirens” seem hollow, lack insight, and reek of lyrics that were hammered out on instinct, not careful consideration.
This kind of a songwriting experiment keeps the Sonic Highways album from being essential listening. It’s more of a failed experiment, a diversion from a real Foo Fighters album…..” — Consequence of Sound
“….Over these eight tracks, Sonic Highways never dips in the quality you’d expect from a band of Foo Fighters’ stature. But why not take a few risks, lads? You get the feeling Grohl and the boys could write a concept album about the sex life of comets, and it would sound “recognisably like a Foo Fighters album”. But hey, if what you want is more of the same – well, here it is…..” — Digital Spy
Check back for more reviews as they are published. An excerpt from the HBO’Sonic Highways’ documentary is below along with the video for ‘Something From Nothing,’ the lead single.
Pictures: PR Photos
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