For the past two decades, Dave Grohl has always had a hook on which to hang each new Foo Fighters record. ‘In Your Honor’ was a hard-and-soft double album, while follow-up ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ condensed those two sides into a single disc. Seeking authenticity, they cut ‘Wasting Light’ in Grohl’s garage, before recording eight songs in eight different cities for ‘Sonic Highways’. ‘Concrete and Gold’ pivoted to pop; ‘Medicine at Midnight’ aimed for a broad stylistic palette; ‘But Here We Are’ reckoned with unthinkable grief.
Ahead of ‘Your Favorite Toy’, though, Grohl has been more taciturn. One of the few remarks he’s made on the record about this 12th Foo Fighters album is that “it feels new”, which is curious, because it sounds like the Foo Fighters of old. Its closest stylistic cousin within the band’s catalogue is their self-titled debut, written and almost entirely recorded alone by Grohl as he was sifting through the post-grunge wreckage of Nirvana.
At its best, ‘Your Favorite Toy’ broils with the same kind of exposed-nerve punk energy as the band’s earliest iteration did. The riff-driven swagger of the title track is a case in point, as is the scorching, angry ‘Of All People’, which evokes 1995 single ‘I’ll Stick Around’ – its lyrical target not Courtney Love, but a drug dealer Grohl knew in the ’90s who miraculously escaped the death and chaos they helped sow.
‘Spit Shine’ and ‘Amen, Caveman’ are further standouts, hauling the listener along with their breakneck pace while cleverly imbuing a hard rock instrumental palette with infectious melody. This is their first album with new drummer Ilan Rubin, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, and he passes the audition with flying colours; the best tracks tend to be the ones on which his thunderous percussive work is setting the pace.
Vocally, Grohl has rediscovered his roar, but lyricism has never been his strongest suit, and much of it here is throwaway; those looking for signs of where his head is at after his infidelity scandal two years ago will be largely disappointed. But a fascinating exception is ‘Child Actor’, on which Grohl – who’s come to relish the spotlight after 30 years as the Foos’ frontman – unflinchingly examines his need for validation; it is the sound of somebody who has knocked themselves off their own perch searching for answers in the mirror.
‘Your Favorite Toy’ is a few more tracks of that depth away from being the most vital Foo Fighters record since 1997’s ‘The Colour and the Shape’. For now, at least, they have remembered that no-frills punk, played fast and loud, suits them much better than middle-of-the-road dad-rock.
