Review Summary: A great lyrical journey, but too familiar musically
Over the course of their career,
Foo Fighters has been known for bringing a classic rock twist to the post-grunge genre. They are also very celebrated in the world of music, having won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album over their past several consecutive albums. However, after their masterpiece of Wasting Light, released in 2011, I was wondering where they could go from there. Would they be more experimental or return to their roots?
Sadly, the answer is neither. For the Foo Fighters, Sonic Highways is definitely a journey to nowhere. Sonically, it loses a lot of the depth that Wasting Light while not charting any new ground. It feels less intriguing, as if we've heard it all before. The guitar riffs tonally feel the same as before, which is definitely not a bad thing; however, they somehow are not nearly as enticing and demanding of our attention. Honestly, it feels as if Foo Fighters decided to move into a more conservative genre, as Wasting Light was visceral, dark post-grunge that retained most of its grunge-ness. Sonic Highways feels like a step away from that, and that's not a great thing.
The concept behind the production of Sonic Highways is intriguing: the band visited several U.S. cities to gain inspiration for their new album. This was chronicled in an HBO series recently. They also recruited several local musicians to add flavor to each of the songs. However, if you would have told me that
Joe Walsh and
Zac Brown both were featured on this album, I would have laughed you out of the room. They add very little of their own style to the traditional Foo Fighters sound, making this sound too complacent. Essentially, the local influence that the band was going for didn't pan out in any way, shape, or form. The only musically interesting song is the closer "I Am a River." It closes out the album nicely with its ambitious sound that I can honestly say I've never heard on a Foo Fighters record.
Lyrically, Sonic Highways does take us on a journey of sorts, They seem very inspired by the locales they were recorded in. For example, the album's opener "Something from Nothing" seems to take on a very Chicagoan story, idealizing the American dream and rebuilding out of the ashes of the fire. "What Did I Do?/God As My Witness" makes frequent references to the Austin music scene, while "Congregation" goes back to its backwoods southern roots. It even makes reference to the political history of our nation's capital in "The Feast and the Famine." The lyrics make this album listenable because of this second nature they take from their respective cities.
Overall, Sonic Highways is not what I expected from the Foo Fighters. Lyrically, it actually engages the listener in the cross-country road trip they take. However, it keeps the music too close to their chests, reminding me of the visceral nature of Wasting Light while never actually attaining its dynamic rock sound. It reminds me of the
U2 album Rattle and Hum in the fact that they try to take their current sound and let it be influenced by American music. It didn't work there, and it doesn't work here. I am expecting some sonic reinvention the next time around from Dave Grohl and Co.
