Album Review: Foo Fighters - ‘Your Favourite Toy’
The rock and roll godfathers, Foo Fighters, dust off their distortion pedals and sink their teeth into a vicious and refreshing new sound in their new album ‘Your Favourite Toy’.
Chances are, if you’ve been around music, you know Foo Fighters. The sometimes brash and punchy, sometimes mellow and heartfelt, but always stellar and ready to rumble six-piece all-star cast have put on dazzling shows across the world stage for 3 decades now, and the flames of passion have yet to cease. If anything, more fuel has been thrown on the fire, as is perfectly displayed in their brand-new album ‘Your Favourite Toy’. This 10-track masterclass in electrifying songwriting is up there with the best of their projects and demonstrates both the depth of talent and the creative longevity of every contributing member. This move fast and break things approach has been done before, but this time it’s a more concise and controlled chaos as it smashes through bright and dramatic chord sequences, addictive lead lines and one of the most memorable and creative vocal performances ever delivered.
‘Your Favourite Toy’ is off to the races before you can even get your seatbelt on, as it opens on a blistering stretch of tracks. Kicking us off is the emphatic, almost episodic ‘Caught in The Echo’. This track ebbs and flows through inspirations and genres seamlessly, creating swells of drama before a word is uttered. This is perpetuated throughout the entire album with other tracks from its opening segment, such as its latest single, ‘Of All People’, delivering a scathing, ice-cold experience of bitterness for a person from a past life that just won’t seem to let go. This is played off against the positive memories of the relationship lost to give an extra dose of venom and acrimony, twisting the knife throughout this song’s ferocious and caustic chord progressions. The songwriting ability of Grohl and company has always been a marvel to witness; however, this album feels imbued with a second wind of creative talent, evolving past the collective grief of their previous 2023 smash hit ‘But Here We Are’, largely influenced by the tragic passing of Taylor Hawkins. While the memory of Taylor will forever be etched into the soul of the band, this album feels like a triumphant reinvention, intended to press on in the wake of such tragedy. This reinvention mainly presents itself in the form of influence, as this album pulls sounds and stylings from every corner of alternative music and compiles them into a raw and ecstatic Foo Fighters sound.
This album is nothing short of intoxicating from cover to cover, and I honestly cannot imagine how difficult picking out a handful of singles must have been, due to the sheer volume of quality on this album. While the singles contain sheer excellence from everyone, a lot of the standout moments for individual performance are continued within some of the deeper cuts. Foo Fighters newcomer Ilan Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails and Angels and Airwaves fame, beats the kit within an inch of its life on hardcore punk-influenced blitzkrieg ’Spit Shine’ perfectly complementing the gritty and deranged vocals and intertwined guitar patterns of Grohl, Shiflett and Smear. In terms of stand-out guitar patterns, you could pick any number of tracks; the most memorable and infectious are contained within the album’s singles. The title track ‘Your Favourite Toy’ is both playful and furious at the same time. Its childlike opening lyrics and insanely singable choruses are accompanied by one of the catchiest and most vicious lead lines to ever emanate from Shiflett. This bright and poppy lead line mixes heavy distortion with major chords and harmonic chugs that add endless depth and create an insatiable need to get up and dance. The aforementioned ‘Caught in the Echo’ and ’Of All People’ are also clear high points of this album, with qualities that are undoubtedly going to tide them over into both the permanent setlist and the rock and roll history books. This album is full to the brim of greatness, and to see a group of people with so much talent find joy in being creative is not only fulfilling but very telling, as every track on this album contains a natural sense of fun and whimsy that pours out into the performance of each member.
‘Your Favourite Toy’ switches back to a more familiar modern Foo's sound for its home stretch, with tracks like ‘Child Actor’ containing a more melancholic stripped-back sound that speaks volumes. This song manages to put across its deeply personal messaging message of youth and fame mixing like oil and water, wanting the world to ‘Turn the cameras off’, as it becomes more difficult to grapple with life in the public eye, especially after it being all you’ve known, while still containing a comfortable and intimate sound and still being a well-rounded banger. ‘Amen, Caveman’ easily wins song title of the year so far and is another track reminiscent of the warm stare of an old friend, with its linear, vast soundscape and bouncy feel. While this song may seem like a safe play, as many have been made before it that follow a similar pattern, it just proves that it remains completely timeless. Still to this day, that cookie-cutter writing style has been littered within their projects from the beginning, and that’s the reason it’s become such a staple; it is classic, and you can bet the house that someone, somewhere is rocking out to a track like ’Amen, Caveman’ at all times.
As the album draws to a close, we bear witness to arguably the most theatrical track that Foo Fighters have ever produced. Asking For a Friend, the first of the 4 singles released for this album, feels as if it was ripped straight from a superhero movie, its opening verse swells and grows in intensity with every passing second before crashing into a brutal drop-tuned slide riffs and heavy chord progression as Grohl's vocals roar through the crashing drum patterns. This song exudes creativity from top to toe. The swell and backing created by keyboard player Rami Jaffee add layer after layer of drama to the fold that peaks during the triumphant and powerful choruses. This backing is then hijacked by the crushing and violent drum tracking and crescendos into one of the most synchronised displays of pure chaos that music as a whole has witnessed. As this song crashes and burns in a blaze of glory, we are left reminiscing about the sheer power of this album and its brilliant creativity, and honestly, the only thing that will cure the yearning for more is to put it straight back on. To call this a return to form would be slanderous, as they never left their form in the first place. This is a band that has gone through hell and back and come out of the other side smiling through blood-soaked teeth, and to see them bounce back and create yet another masterpiece will forever make me grateful that I was alive at the same time as Foo Fighters. I can’t wait to see the pits caused by this albums take no prisoners approach as they transition over to the live stage this summer with a European and UK tour that will, without a doubt, set the continent alight. This is a truly unmissable album, so get ready for Foo Fighters’ summer, because it’s coming.
Words by Josh Pook
