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Foo Fighter’s Sonic Highways is an interesting concept. Eight songs recorded in eight different cities, with each song supposedly reflecting the sound of that city. For a band that haven’t really switched up their sound over twenty years, that’s a pretty cool idea. With that in mind however, the album must be judged on two levels. One, does it succeed at its intended concept? And more importantly two, is it a good album.

The album opens with the sporadic “Something from Nothing,” which I’ve talked about before. It’s clear from the get go that Foo Fighters are trying something different here, even if it doesn’t quite work here. Unfortunately, the same problem can be seen in the Austin, Texas influenced “What Did I Do?/God as My Witness,” perhaps one of the oddest tracks the band has recorded. While the effort is admirable, the track is kind of a mess. It seems that while Foo Fighters are great at recording simple rock songs, when they step out of their comfort zone it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

The album is somewhat of a tricky balancing act in that way. How do you accurately represent the cities you’re recording in while staying true to the Foo Fighters sound? The album may not succeed when it tries something different, but at times it fails even more at properly representing the various cities. The biggest example of this would be “Congregation,” which could have taken a lot more influence from Nashville music. In the Sonic Highways documentary Dave Grohl even states that he doesn’t want to record a country song. I can see why that would feel too obvious, but it does beg the question of why he would even record in Nashville if he didn’t want to represent the city’s rich history of country music.

That said, “Congregation” along with the similarly simplistic “In the Clear” are some of the strongest points on the album, with the former sounding like it would have fit in perfectly on There is Nothing Left to Lose. While Grohl may not have totally succeeded at representing each city, he does remind you at times that he and the rest of the band have an incredible knack for writing simple, catchy rock songs. It’s unfortunate that the album only reaches high point when its concept is ignored.

One part of the Sonic Highways project that cannot be ignored however is the lyrics. For each song Dave Grohl wrote the lyrics at the last moment, taking inspiration from the city and using quotes from the various interviews he conducted. The idea is cool, but for me it just doesn’t work. While each song is meant to be about its respective city, I feel like they all sound like they’re about nothing. Grohl’s mad-libbed lyrics just feel like one line after another, with no connection to what comes before or after.

The album ends with yet another ambitious track, “I Am a River.” This ends up being one of the high points on the album, and possibly the only track where the Foo Fighters manage to experiment and make a properly great song. The string section is especially nice, and it doesn’t really sound like anything the Foo Fighters would normally record, although they make it their own. That said, the lyrics can be laughably bland at times, especially in the chorus.

Sonic Highways is a mixed bag. I wouldn’t say it succeeds at its concept at all, but as an album it’s much harder to judge. While some songs really work to the band’s strengths, when they try to experiment it unfortunately falls apart. But even these songs tend to have good moments, and I certainly can’t say the album wasn’t enjoyable. While it may be one of Foo Fighters’ weaker works, there’s still a good deal to enjoy in it.