They stick around: For 28 years now, the Foo Fighters have not only been a constant in the international rock circuit, but also part of the absolute upper class. With their albums they have a subscription to gold and platinum awards, their ninth LP CONCRETE AND GOLD did not detract from this success story. At Lollapalooza Berlin 2017 they presented the album exclusively in Germany. In June 2018, Dave Grohl and Co. headlined Rock am Ring and Rock im Park 2018 and gave a concert in Hamburg. In the summer of 2019, they topped the lineup of Hurricane and Southside alongside The Cure, Mumford & Sons and Die Toten Hosen.
Excessive celebrations for their 25th birthday came to nothing in 2020 for reasons known worldwide, but whatever: the Foo Fighters are simply recording their next, tenth studio album. That’s called MEDICINE AT MIDNIGHT, thanks to the lead single “Shame Shame” promised a new sound that was countered by the more typical follow-up single “Waiting On A War” – and was released on February 5, 2021. Time for a small retrospective from awesome to never mind, we decided at the time.
Today, however, the reason for looking at this list is a sad one that makes even the future of the biggest “new” rock band in the world seem uncertain: drummer Taylor Hawkins died on March 26, 2022 at the age of 50. He was found dead in a hotel room in Bogota. He joined the Foo Fighters in 1997, where he was the second most important member after Grohl and also released solo albums.
FOO FIGHTERS (1995)
Grohl’s breaking the cord from the Nirvana past that had to be overcome was at the same time a respectable success with a view: anyone who just pops out rock songs like “This Is A Call” and “For All The Cows” on his solo debut has more than one (good) place earned behind the drums. Also refreshing was the humorous side of the Foo Fighters (see “Big Me” video), which was always there with Nirvana, but was always neglected under the depressive and iconic grunge sound.
Foo Fighters – THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE (1997)
Not only the final emancipation from their own history, but the early registration for the Rock Olympus: THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE is not only considered the classic of the Foo Fighters, which has not been equaled to this day, but also one of the best albums of the 90s ever. Produced by Gil Norton, Grohl created instant evergreens like “Everlong”, “My Hero”, ballads like “February Stars” and “Walking After You” and thus the corporate identity of the band sound as we know it to this day. While grunge-epigons like Creed and Co. – sometimes very successfully – still tried to warm up what had just existed, the Foo Fighters heralded a new era: No more introversion, depression, life-negating or pathos, bring on hooklines, hard rock and the great shirt-sleeved hymns.
FOO FIGHTER THERE’S NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE (1999)
Who would blame the Foo Fighters for not only not re-writing THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE, but also offering a lot of rippling stuff (“Aurora”, “Ain’t It The Life”) – if they also did it with Feelgood- Hits like “Learn To Fly” and “Generator” came around the corner? Just. And back then, in 2002 at the latest, when Grohl and his boys reenacted a complete passenger plane in the video for “Learn To Fly”, it was clear: We are obviously still dealing with a very funny and sympathetic contemporary. Many more examples should follow.
Foo Fighters – ONE BY ONE (2002)
Her attempt to re-enter the dark corners of rock music, which Grohl has always liked to peer into. A great commercial success: “Times Like These” rightly became another hit, with the opener “All My Life” they even won a Grammy for best hard rock performance. It was her third, eight more were to follow. But even Grohl later said of the album: “Four of the songs were good, and the other seven I never played again in my life. We rushed into it, and we rushed out of it.”
Foo Fighters – IN YOUR HONOR (2005)
He should actually say the same about the next two albums: On the loud-quiet double album IN YOUR HONOR, the Foo Fighters manage themselves – nothing more. It was supposed to be their most essential album and turned out to be the complete opposite. Except for the meanwhile obligatory oversingle (“Best Of You”), nothing really stuck in the ear, neither in the Foo Fighters’ setlists. Yes, wait a minute: Liam Gallagher recently praised Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at Glastonbury 2017, saying that he really liked the song he sang “Cold Day In The Sun”. No, not at all, sorry: Gallagher meant a newer solo track by Hawkins. QED: IN YOUR HONOR he’s guaranteed to have forgotten too.
Foo Fighters – ECHOES, SILENCE, PATIENCE AND GRACE (2007)
And it gets even more irrelevant: “Let It Die”, “Summer’s End”, “Stranger Things Have Happened” – they all have good moments, but they all sound like a rehash of other Foo Fighters songs, which you can listen to in one way or another has heard again and again on six albums. Despite or because of the first instrumental piece of their career (“Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners”), which was dedicated to buried miners: dispensable record.
Foo Fighters – WASTING LIGHT (2011)
A comeback like a slap in the face: With WASTING LIGHT, the Foo Fighters not only pulverized the already insignificant predecessors, they also put down a dirty rock album with a punk attitude that at least doesn’t have to hide behind THE COLOR AND THE SHAPE. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that guitarist Pat Smear was in the studio with him for the first time since then (and ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic was a guest on the mat). Finally one of their LPs had more killers than fillers and with the first, refreshingly unconventional single “White Limo” (featuring Lemmy Kilmister in the video) there was finally another element of surprise. If you wanted corporate rock hits, you got them with “Walk” and “These Days”. Grohl proved again: if you can, you can.
Foo Fighters – SONIC HIGHWAYS (2014)
The most ambitious albums are not always the best (see IN YOUR HONOR): The story behind SONIC HIGHWAYS – band records songs in various legendary US studios with famous musicians and thus also tells of a road trip in and through the rock music history of their country, about which even made an HBO documentary – is excellent. Unfortunately, the songs themselves don’t keep up. Half as tragic that the long speculated second part of SONIC HIGHWAYS never appeared.
Foo Fighters – CONCRETE AND GOLD (2017)
With their first two singles “Run” and “The Sky Is A Neigborhood”, the soporific title CONCRETE AND GOLD and their extensive touring program, Foo Fighters suggested that 2017 was no surprise. The first live versions of songs like “La Dee Da” were reminiscent of well-known songs like “All My Life”. The fans liked it right away, the critics haven’t liked the band for years anyway. ME author Julia Lorenz summed it up: “If you wanted to show the extraterrestrials what a great rock album sounds like on earth, a really okay, perfectly normal blast from a guitar record – you should shoot CONCRETE AND GOLD into space.”
So let’s keep the Foo Fighters bringing out what they do best: entertainment.
Foo Fighters – MEDICINE AT MIDNIGHT (2021)
The tenth studio album by Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear and Rami Jaffee will be released on February 5th. So let’s give ourselves the three new songs that have already been released – and our review of the record. Frank Sawatzki attests Dave Grohl, among other things, that he sings in Bowie’s footsteps.
This text first appeared in late summer 2017 and has since been expanded and updated irregularly.