Foo Fighters’ latest excursion promises something new; something steeped in personal history and hewn from the varied musical heritages of some of the USA’s most vibrant cities. It’s a challenge, a chance for one of the biggest bands in the world step outside the bounds of stadium rock shoutalongs. The result, as a cynical observer might have predicted, is an album boasting eight stadium rock shoutalongs of mixed quality. ‘Sonic Highways’ takes the long way round before ending up at the usual place.
To make this record, Dave Grohl and the gang soaked up the music scenes of Washington D.C., Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York and Seattle, several of which have directly shaped Grohl’s outlook since his early years with Scream.
But, those expecting to be transported to basement clubs in DC or into the inner sanctum of the Grand Ole Opry will be sold short. Those hoping for a lovingly crafted rock record in the style of the Foo Fighters, though, will have plenty to be getting on with.
'Sonic Highways' is certainly the most widescreen of Grohl's attempts to reinvent his band, but it serves to reinforce their strengths further without telling us anything particularly new or revelatory. Like ‘Wasting Light’ or ‘In Your Honor’, the mechanisms behind its creation are initially more interesting that the end result.
The record is home to a run of hairy-chested rockers that are, in time-honoured Foos fashion, alternately reliant on riffs and winsome hooks. Grohl is certainly a literate, sponge-like student of America's musical backroads, but his passion and affinity for DC hardcore, or his personal history with Steve Albini and Chicago, doesn't bubble up as you might expect. For that, see the record's slick, absorbing HBO documentary sidekick, on which Grohl’s love for his subject is obvious.
Perhaps part of the problem lies with Grohl's lyrical style, which remains heavy on metaphor and suitable for deployment at the head of a massive melody, but there’s little here that would have been a sore thumb on any late vintage Foo Fighters album. Where ‘The Colour And The Shape’ or ‘There’s Nothing Left To Use’ fused influences from alt-rock and classic songwriting into diverse wholes, ‘Sonic Highways’ is relatively one-paced despite its wide-reaching slate of influences.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some absolute bankers here, though. Congregation, the Zac Brown-featuring Nashville segment, is imbued with melodic licks and a mighty chorus, while What Did I Do?/God As My Witness is a sprawling, righteous slab of southern rock powered by Gary Clark Jr. and the band’s stay in Austin. The DC stopover, The Feast And The Famine, is rough around the edges and spat out with maximum vigour and Subterranean, the Seattle leg, is a lilting pop-rocker carried off by subtle guitar work and a wash of strings.
If the album’s other four tracks can’t match that standard, only one really sinks without a trace, and that’s the closing, New York-inspired ballad I Am A River. It’s an insipid goodbye masquerading as a triumphant outro and does a disservice to some of the enjoyable high points that preceded it.
‘Sonic Highways’ is a trip worth taking, but one that might leave you wanting to know what’s going on under the surface of all that beautiful scenery.
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