FOO FIGHTERS
Your Favorite Toy (Roswell)
The first Foo Fighters release since their emotionally raw But Here We Are – a collection of songs written after the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins – is more nostalgic than brand new. Yet there are definite experimental strands to this headbangingly solid collection.
Take the title track: undeniably Foo Fighters, but sounding youthful and fresh enough to uphold the ‘age is but a number’ maxim. Something to strengthen the band’s status as rock-festival gods; similarly, If You Only Knew has a climax that places you at the centre of a sweat-dripping moshpit, gasping for air. That energy holds strong into the following track, Spit Shine, and doesn’t relent even for softer moments like Unconditional.
As a body of work, Your Favorite Toyfeels remarkably like early 00s-era Foos, but with a wisdom and freedom of musical style and lyrical mastery borne of decades in the business. Easing us towards the back end of the tracklist, Child Actor’s refrain of “turn the cameras off” is softly simple but echoes against the big drum hits and raging guitar, and the powerful, anthemic Asking For A Friend is a perfect big finish to an album containing surefire future Foo Fighters classics.
words DENIECE CUSACK
