{"id":23995,"date":"2015-01-19T21:57:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T02:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/?p=23995"},"modified":"2015-03-24T21:38:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T02:38:15","slug":"foo-fighters-sonic-highways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/","title":{"rendered":"Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foo Fighters<\/strong>
\n Sonic Highways<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When I first heard that the new Foo Fighters\u2019 album, Sonic Highways<\/em>, was going to be a loose collection of songs recorded around the country with various artists and lead singer collaborations, I was kind of nervous. The press release said something flowery, describing the album as \u201ca love letter to the history of American music,\u201d with sessions at iconic studios in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington, DC. That\u2019s all fine and dandy, but based upon past experience, I generally don’t feel too good about departure-from-the-norm type albums. What sounds like a good idea from an artist looking for inspiration or something new usually comes off like a throwaway piece of their career. And when it\u2019s a band of a certain stature in the upper echelons of my musical taste, I prepare for disappointment.<\/p>\n

Foo Fighters is one of those bands that\u2019ll get my immediate attention when they release a new album. I\u2019ll get excited and usually buy it. I\u2019ve been disappointed along the way, though. I think I would still like a refund for the In Your Honor<\/em> and Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace<\/em> albums. That is partially because it followed the greatness and wholeness of One by One<\/em> and just let me down. Granted, they gave us the \u201cBest of You\u201d and \u201cThe Pretender\u201d singles, but that\u2019s about it (at least for me). I get tired when attempting to play those \u201cLong Play\u201d albums from beginning to end. I liked Wasting Light<\/em>, so I hadn\u2019t lost faith in the Foo Fighters. They were still a band, like U2, King\u2019s X or Stavesacre that I\u2019d shell out ten bucks sight-unseen on a new album.<\/p>\n

Back to my trepidation about this Sonic Highways<\/em> project… After all, you want to hear about me and my feelings, instead of about the band I\u2019m supposedly reviewing, right? Specialty projects like this are nice. They\u2019re meaningful, but they\u2019re also sometimes highly self-indulgent and about as useful as a good documentary on revealing another side of an artist I like.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I do care that Dave Grohl was influenced by Ian Mackaye or Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin or Johnny Cash. It\u2019s just not the kind of album I\u2019m probably going to upload on my iphone and take along for car rides and other adventures. To be invited to my personal VIP iPhone playlist, it needs to be something special and lasting. I wanna hear the Foo Fighters at their best. Give me full-tilt rockers like \u201cTimes Like These,\u201d \u201cEverlong,\u201d \u201cMy Hero,\u201d \u201cLearn to Fly,\u201d \u201cAll My Life,\u201d \u201cMonkey Wrench\u201d and \u201cHave It All.\u201d Those are my favorites. That exemplifies the Foo Fighters to me \u2013 a penchant for big hooks, but passionate singing that borders on the edge of spit-flying screaming and just behind the beat resting. Dave Grohl and company have this part down. They know how to write a good song and they certainly know how to perform. It\u2019s hard not to like this band.<\/p>\n

But will I like this album? That is the question.<\/p>\n

The slow, plucking intro to the lead-off track, \u201cSomething From Nothing,\u201d immediately started to set my fears aside, with Grohl\u2019s easy-going vocals cascading over some gentle guitar. Verse one and two had me breathing a sigh of relief. \u201cI\u2019m going to like this one.\u201d The climb into each chorus was rocking, but just shy of balls out metal. Then the second chorus climbed further into some sort of Ronnie James Dio tribute territory. In fact, those tough-guy riffs could\u2019ve been lifted straight from the tune \u201cHoly Diver.\u201d Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love Dio\u2019s music and I love the tunes of the Chicago artist they visited for this collaboration (Cheap Trick\u2019s Rick Nielsen), but this was going south for me fast.<\/p>\n

Track one gave way to track two, though, and \u201cThe Feast and the Famine\u201d came to the rescue. This is the Foo Fighters I love. Catchy melodies stack vocals over guitar, crashing drums and loud, celebratory choruses. \u201cCongregation\u201d follows suit with a nice rocker doing more of the same, only trading off between riff and vocals instead of blending the two. The tune recorded in Austin (with guitar hero Gary Clark Jr.), \u201cWhat Did I Do \u2026 God As My Witness\u201d infuses a little \u201860s Brit pop, Motown soul and even a little bit of Americana folk rock (a la Creedence Clearwater Revival), creating a modern day love song of gratitude (\u201cWhat did I do to deserve you?\u201d). It\u2019s an epic song that almost ends and begins again. It finally does come to an end with a jam that\u2019d be at home on a Skynyrd live album. It\u2019s quite the feel-good tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside\u201d churns along, led by a great groovy bass line that settles into a nice ditty that feels native to the place it was recorded \u2013 Joshua Tree, California. With Joe Walsh collaborating, it hearkens back to a sound from the \u201870s and the not-too-distant Laurel Canyon singer\/songwriters. You might even hear a rich melody like this on a Tom Petty album.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Clear,\u201d recorded with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans, marches with a cadence and rock confidence that is pure Foo Fighters. I\u2019m dang proud of this band for letting their own music and sound rule over these songs, not letting the guest musicians overtake their own special identity. These guys know how to make their audience feel good. But, just so no one confuses them with being a happy Christian rock band, they throw a \u201cGod\u201d and a \u201cdamn\u201d into the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubterranean\u201d was the first song I heard for this album just prior to its release and it\u2019s got a great, creepy acoustic hook not unlike the subdued but building passion of \u201cLow\u201d or \u201cStranger Things Have Happened.\u201d It swings back and forth between dreamy and energetic. Maybe it\u2019s the rainy and melancholy weather of where it was recorded (Seattle).<\/p>\n

\u201cI Am A River,\u201d the album\u2019s longest track at 7 minutes and 9 seconds, ends the album with an atmospheric, mellow and moody piece. 8 songs go by fast, but at 42 minutes it qualifies as a full-length by rock and roll standards.<\/p>\n

Yes, Sonic Highways<\/em> is a real Foo Fighters album. I predict it\u2019ll live on my iPhone for a good, long while. They had me scared for a moment, but I overcame my fears just by listening and I now know that I can certainly live with their latest album. It was a calculated risk, but the results sing for themselves.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious, the album\u2019s cover is a detailed collage that shows landmarks from each of the 8 cities\u2019 landmarks \u2013 like the Superdome in New Orleans, the Statue of Liberty in NYC, the Space Needle in Seattle, the Frost Bank building in Austin, the Parthenon in Nashville, Chicago\u2019s John Hancock building, the Hollywood sign and the Washington Monument. For more insight into this album, check out the companion HBO television series, Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways<\/em>, with special episodes on each city. [RCA] Doug Van Pelt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foo Fighters Sonic Highways When I first heard that the new Foo Fighters\u2019 album, Sonic Highways, was going to be a loose collection of songs recorded around the country with various artists and lead singer collaborations, I was kind of nervous. The press release said something flowery, describing the album as \u201ca love letter to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,23],"tags":[3809,1133,1655,2204,2557],"class_list":["post-23995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-blog","category-reviews","tag-dave-grohl","tag-foo-fighters","tag-john-thompson","tag-nirvana","tag-rob-shameless","cat-26-id","cat-17-id","cat-23-id"],"yoast_head":"\nFoo Fighters - Sonic Highways - The Original Heaven's Metal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doug Van Pelt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/\",\"name\":\"Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways - The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sonichighways.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-20T02:57:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-25T02:38:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#\/schema\/person\/b155afeb7086c8182b3bb3b435e68c4b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sonichighways.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sonichighways.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/foo-fighters-sonic-highways\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hmmagazine.com\/dvanpelt\/\",\"name\":\"The Original Heaven's Metal\",\"description\":\"Former Editor-in-Chief. 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