FOO FIGHTERS: But Here We Are

29 years into an amazingly resilient career, this little side project from former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl is picking up steam again.  Foo Fighters' last album Medicine At Midnight was strangely lopsided; it was purported to be a dance album, but found its way back to AOR by around the fourth track. It was their first record since The Colour and the Shape not to have at least one single track merit regular rotation, at least for this reviewer. Perhaps in response to some of those critics who found Medicine At Midnight a little too polished and generic, the Foos' eleventh album But Here We Are gets loud, messy and emotional in all the best ways.  

Of course, it’s impossible to write about this record without mentioning one very conspicuous absence. The loss of drummer Taylor Hawkins is all over this material; in the lyrics, in the tone, and even in the title, which could be taken as a reference to survivor’s guilt. They’ll never be the same band without Dave Grohl’s legendary “twin flame,” but there is a very big silver lining here. Grohl hasn’t sounded this passionate, this raw, and this sincere in years- at least since 2011’s Wasting Light. From the barn-burning opening track “Rescued” to the sweeping closer “Rest,” this album sounds like the work of one man with everything to prove again. Hawkins’ passing at the age of 50 was indeed a tragedy, but it needs to be said that Grohl seems to be at his musical best when rebounding from loss.

The Foo Fighters' legacy is, in some ways, a perfect flipside of Grohl's previous band.  Nirvana, rightfully iconic as they are, were a blip in terms of actual activity:  They released a fine debut, one genuinely indisputable perfect record, and an excellent third album, but it all ended abruptly in less than five years.  The Foo Fighters have yet to make their Nevermind- even their best records have a skippable track or two- but they've been steadily cranking out anthems for almost three decades, and they sound more in bloom than ever. Grohl himself is a perfect flipside of Cobain: More of a working class Joe than an enigmatic artist, and a survivor rather than a martyr. A-