Foo Fighters - "Medicine At Midnight" (2021)

Foo Fighters are one of those bands for me that deserve their legendary status based primarily on their singles and live show, not really their albums. Not that any of them are really all that bad, but the band has very much stayed in the same lane for the past 25 years, making basically the same record of feel-good, anthemic hard rock and post-grunge tunes with each go around. The singles are usually brilliant, but the lack of variety in the deep cuts means that even the band's most fan favourite albums have never really gripped me the whole way through.

This time around, though, things were different. Unfortunately, not in a good way. None of the singles really grabbed me, and were generally a bit meh. Which was worrying, as the singles are always the best tracks on a Foos record. Luckily this drop in quality hasn't transferred to the album tracks as well; they're just as fine-to-decent as Foos deep cuts. But without a couple of really great tentpole tracks, Medicine At Midnight really has no draw.

On the whole the band has mellowed out on this record compared to some of the others. The distortion is turned down, the rhythm section is tighter and slightly groovier, and none of the tracks descend into Dave Grohl's ferocious scream like you'd here on All My Life, White Limo and Run. Many of the tracks are laced with strings and other cinematic elements. It makes the album feel very polished and combined with the softer approach makes it feel more like a product than something with a lot of depth and heart. Which is weird, because Grohl clearly wears his heart on his sleeve in interviews about authenticity in music. It's not overbearing, but it just sounds a bit too clean considering Foo Fighter's ethos and aesthetic. 

Out of the 9 tracks here, Cloudspotter and No Son Of Mine are probably some of the better ones. Cloudspotter has this groovy garage rock vibe, and is one of the more rag-tag and unpolished sounding tracks here. No Son Of Mine feels like an homage to thrash metal. Its nowhere as heavy as true thrash, but the guitars chug, the drums thunder and Grohl puts in one of the more aggressive performances on the album. It's actually pretty catchy as well, which is more than most the songs here. The closer, Love Dies Young is also the only track that resembles some of the sing-a-long feel good anthems that are the band's most popular. It's an injection of energy that's welcome after how restrained and by the numbers the album has been leading up to it. These tracks do pale in comparison to the band's finest, but they're definitely more entertaining than the rest of the record.

Medicine At Midnight is a fine Foo Fighters record, but probably the group's least significant. The only other record on a similar level is Sonic Highways, but at least that album has the whole '8 songs recorded at 8 historical studios' thing going for it to make it somewhat notable. If you're a superfan of the band, there's plenty of stuff here that you'll enjoy; but as a casual fan it is going to always near the bottom of the list in the rare occasion that I want to listen to a Foos record in full.

Top Tracks: Cloudspotter, No Son Of Mine, Love Dies Young

5/10