Hey, everybody! Reader here, and over the weekend, I finally had the chance to give a listen to the new Foo Fighters album, “Your Favorite Toy.”
Making the drive to and from Swan River on Saturday, I had the opportunity for some uninterrupted listening, so I was able to crank up the new ten-track collection from Dave Grohl and Company.
My first impressions after a couple of listens? A pretty good album, that will probably grow on me the more I listen to it.
Right now, I’d rank it in about the middle, as far as the Foos’ albums go. Not in the upper tier, not at the bottom.
It’s the band’s shortest album, at 36:26, and the bulk of my favourite tracks make up the album’s back half, particularly the three song blast of “Spit Shine,” “Unconditional,” and “Child Actor,” which is probably my favourite song on the album, the first with Ilan Rubin on drums.
The album has all the hallmarks of the band that you know and love, including the loud, quiet, loud dynamics, rousing choruses, and blasts of heavy rock, contrasted by the quieter moments.
With the new album, the band’s 12th studio effort, it inspired me to give an informal ranking of my favourite Foo Fighter albums. I don’t know if there’ll be any controversial takes here. I suppose it all comes down to personal taste.
So here goes…
12) “Sonic Highways” – Kind of a concept album, written as Dave Grohl travelled to eight musical hotspots in the U.S. for the “Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways” documentary. Dave described is as a “love letter to the history of American music.” The biggest hit from the album is probably “Something from Nothing.”
11) “Concrete and Gold” – Featuring “The Sky is a Neighborhood” and “Run.” A decent colection of tunes!
10) “Your Favorite Toy” – Like I said, some great tunes, and an album that may rise up my rankings the more I listen to it.
9) “Medicine at Midnight” – The final album featuring the late-great Taylor Hawkins on drums, I love “Waiting on a War” and “Making a Fire,” not to mention “Shame, Shame” and “No Son of Mine.” Just a quick blast of energy!
8) “But Here We Are” – Written in the wake of the deaths of Taylor Hawkins and Dave’s mom, this one packs an emotional punch, with songs like “The Teacher” – a tribute to Virginia Grohl – as well as “Rescued,” “Under You,” and one of the prettiest songs the Foos have ever made, “Show Me How,” featuring Dave’s daughter Violet on backing vocals.
7) “In Your Honor” – A double album, half electric, half acoustic, this one has the all-timer “Best of You,” along with “DOA,” and “Friend of a Friend.”
6) “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace” – This is the album that has possibly my absolute fave Foos tune, “The Pretender,” as well as “Long Road to Ruin,” and the acoustic “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners.”
5) “Foo Fighters” – The debut! Dave’s completely self=played, self-produced album after the end of Nirvana, had hits like “Big Me” and “I’ll Stick Around,” “This is a Call,” “Alone + Easy Target,” and “For All the Cows,” which I remember crowd surfing to at Edgefest years ago in my younger days!
4) “One By One” – The band was going through a rough patch during the making of this album, which still yielded two of their greatest tracks, “All My Life,” as well as “Times Like These.” Another hidden gem off this one? “Tired of You,” featuring legendary Queen guitarist Brian May.
3) “There is Nothing Left to Lose” – “Learn To Fly,” “Stacked Actors,” and one of their greatest deep cuts, “Aurora,” which Dave says is a song about the meaning of life, and a tune he calls a favourite of both himself and Taylor Hawkins. I love the way the guitar shimmers in this one…
2) “The Colour and the Shape” – Their second album has two of their biggest hits – “Monkey Wrench,” and “Everlong,” as long as “Walking After You.” This album was the soundtrack to many all-night term paper writing sessions, when I was going to college in Medicine Hat!
1) “Wasting Light” – Thus one has some of my personal favourites, especially the hopeful “Walk,” “These Days,” “Rope,” the powerful opener “Bridge Burning,” and “I Should Have Known,” a song written about the people Dave Grohl had lost to that point, including Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
These are my personal favourite Foo Fighter albums. How would you rank ’em? Let me know. And I hope you enjoy the new album!
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