An emotionally charged reckoning, Foo Fighters’ grief-fueled eleventh album ‘However Right here We Are’ aches from the within out because the rock band unleash their demons, seek for that means within the insanity, and attempt to come to peace with their very own internal turbulence.

Stream: ‘However Right here We Are’ – Foo Fighters

Initially my evaluate of Foo Fighters’ eleventh studio album was simply going to be a bunch of unkempt expletives strung right into a half-coherent sentence – an eruption of pleasure, exhilaration, and exhaustion . It felt becoming, however actually these ten songs deserve higher than that. Foo Fighters’ first launch since drummer Taylor Hawkins’ loss of life, However Right here We Are (launched June 2, 2023 by way of Roswell Data) is a heavy and heartfelt tribute to a misplaced good friend: A report of mourning and grief, reckoning with life and loss of life, presence and absence, the unrelenting ache of loss, and the pure legal guidelines that govern our tragically transient existence.

It’s an album that aches from the within out, and one which – fairly poignantly – sees Foo Fighters as soon as extra on the peak of their recreation, albeit lacking somebody who, over the course of the previous 25 years, served because the band’s beating coronary heart. Along with Hawkins’ premature passing in March 2022, Grohl misplaced his mom, Virginia Grohl, later that very same yr.

Every of However Right here We Are‘s ten songs fittingly sees Dave Grohl and co. trying to find that means within the insanity and making an attempt to come back to peace with their very own internal turbulence, all of the whereas letting these tempestuous feelings run free by way of a number of the band’s most explosive and provocative music in years.

Opening observe “Rescued” units the tone with fiery drumming and an emotionally charged refrain about redemption and revival (“We’re all free to some extent to bop underneath the lights, I’m simply ready to be rescued, convey me again to life“), however what’s most hanging is Grohl’s achingly uncooked vocal efficiency: He holds nothing again as he balances management on one hand, and utter chaos on the opposite. The result’s nothing wanting pure, raging ardour.

“I had a imaginative and prescient of you, and identical to that, I used to be left to stay with out it,” Grohl sings on the prime of “The Glass,” considered one of fairly just a few album standouts. Whereas it is a extra tender second of upheaval, Foo Fighters usually lean into the deep, unleashing themselves in feverish outpourings of cataclysmic sound – as exhibited by the album’s very subsequent tune, “Nothing At All,” the place a frenzied Grohl roars, “Now that every one the sensation is gone, everythin’ or nothin’ in any respect!“

I’ve been meanin’ to let you know
I’ve been out of my head
Left my coronary heart in your doorstep
Left you out of my mattress
Possibly I’m delusional
Is that so uncommon?
Didn’t imply to offend you
Was it somethin’ I mentioned?
Put me into your locket
And pulled me off of the ledge
Possibly I’m insatiable
I’m feelin’ so sensational

I’ll get by or perhaps I received’t
I can lie and say that I don’t
Waste my time, currently, I do know
It’s everythin’ or nothin’ in any respect

However Right here We Are is a tempest, and like several good storm, its remaining moments are a few of its greatest. The ten-minute epic “The Trainer” is a melancholic, soul-stirring homage to Grohl’s mom, who herself was a instructor (and, as his mom, additionally served Grohl’s first instructor). The dynamic tune ends with Grohl shouting a “Goodbye!” time and again into the abyss.

Attempt to make good with the air that’s left
Countin’ each minute, livin’ breath by breath
By breath, by breath, by breath
By breath, by
Attempt to make good with the air that’s left
Countin’ each minute, livin’ breath by breath
By breath, by breath, by breath
By breath, by
Goodbye!

However Right here We Are involves a wide ranging shut on the half-acoustic, half-electric “Relaxation,” a hauntingly stunning elegy to the not too long ago departed. “Love and belief, life is only a recreation of luck, all this time’s scaping us, till our time is thru,” Grohl sings within the tune’s verse, discovering a spot of peace and assurance in a refrain that involves be its personal non secular mantra: “Relaxation, you may relaxation now. Relaxation, you may be secure now.“

Waking up, backside of an empty cup
Laying in your favourite garments chosen only for you
Make you snicker, perhaps I might make you snicker
Books are fading, images, moments saved for you
Angel mud, flip to little papercuts
Shut my eyes and really feel your contact, holding onto you

Relaxation, you may relaxation now
Relaxation, you may be secure now
Relaxation, you may relaxation now
Relaxation, you may be secure now

Love and belief, life is only a recreation of luck
All this time’s scaping us, till our time is thru

Foo Fighters’ eleventh album is neither secure nor simple, however in letting out their very own demons and darker sides right here, the legendary rock band have delivered a beacon of affection, mild, and life.

However Right here We Are hurts as a result of loss of life is unavoidable, but it surely’s that intrinsic inevitability – our shared mortality – that makes this album so painful, so transferring, and so goddamn stunning.

— —

:: stream/buy However Right here We Are right here ::

:: join with Foo Fighters right here ::

— — — —

Connect with Foo Fighters on
Fb, Twitter, Instagram

Uncover new music on Atwood Journal

 © Danny Clinch

:: Stream Foo Fighters ::