Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

The biggest problem I had with Wasting Light, the last album by Foo Fighters was how incredibly by-the-numbers it was. Especially given the promises Dave Grohl made about how different it would be, it was somewhat of a letdown in that regard. With their upcoming album, Sonic Highways, we’re once again being told that we’re getting something different.

And if the lead single “Something from Nothing,” is any indication, we actually will be this time. The track takes the band in directions we’ve never seen from them before, incorporating elements of funk and psychedelic rock. Unfortunately, it does so in a very haphazard way. Rather than blend these styles with the Foo’s signature sound, the track essentially sounds like a few different songs stitched together with very little transition between each part. The moment where the main riff (which sounds uncannily like Dio’s “Holy Diver”) kicks in is particularly bad.

The lyrics don’t do the track any favours either. With Sonic Highways, Grohl aimed to experiment with his lyrics, taking lines and phrases out of interviews he conducted for the documentary series of the same name. This leaves the lyrics feeling just as haphazard and strung together as the rest of the song. While Grohl has never been a master lyricist, his usual simplicity worked a lot better than this.

That’s not to say everything about the song is bad. It does redeem itself somewhat near the end, and contains some great guitar work from Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielson (because if there’s anything Foo Fighters needed, it’s a fourth guy on guitar). But overall “Something from Nothing” was a bit of a miss for me. I have to give the Foo Fighters credit for trying to branch out, but unfortunately it could have been done a lot better. Hopefully the rest of Sonic Highways is a bit more cohesive.

Sonic Highways will be released on November 10th. The documentary series of the same name premieres tonight on HBO in America and on BBC 4 in the UK on the 26th.