Foo Fighters
Sonic Highways
RCA Records
2014
I don’t think you should judge or review “Sonic Highways” like any other album, because it’s not like any other album. The way I see it, Dave Grohl wanted to make the experiment of composing and recording 8 different songs in 8 different cities in the US trying to capture the musical vibe of each location each time.
One thing is for sure, the album “Sonic Highways” is merely the soundtrack of “Sonic Highways” the 8 part HBO documentary, and in my opinion both should be judged as a whole. It seems like Mr. Grohl really enjoyed making “Sound City”, the documentary about the historic recording studio of the same name, and thought of making another kinda similar music documentary. As for those anonymous internet commentators who call the whole thing a shameless money grab, it seems to me that there was a lot of work put in filming and editing the episodes, as well as writing, recording and mixing the songs in the album, for it to be considered a money-grab.
To tell the truth, this is not your average Foo Fighters album. Their sound changes from one track to the next. Now one might argue that it only changes a minimum amount, but it still changes. On the other hand the band never pretends to be anybody else, you always know you’re listening to Foo Fighters. In my opinion (and I can’t stress this point too strongly) what we are dealing with here is an experiment that Dave Grohl and his band of merry men had the will, the time and, yes, the luxury to attempt.
Was that experiment successful? In other words, does “Sonic Highways” actually capture the musical history and overall vibe of Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and Washington? Who knows? I mean, there might be a handful of people out there who know the musical legacy of all those cities well enough in order to answer that question and I don’t think I’m one of them. Bottom line is that it’s a tight and fun album which respects the listener and you can listen to it all the way through without a glitch. At the end of the day, what more can anyone ask for?
One thing is for sure, the album “Sonic Highways” is merely the soundtrack of “Sonic Highways” the 8 part HBO documentary, and in my opinion both should be judged as a whole. It seems like Mr. Grohl really enjoyed making “Sound City”, the documentary about the historic recording studio of the same name, and thought of making another kinda similar music documentary. As for those anonymous internet commentators who call the whole thing a shameless money grab, it seems to me that there was a lot of work put in filming and editing the episodes, as well as writing, recording and mixing the songs in the album, for it to be considered a money-grab.
To tell the truth, this is not your average Foo Fighters album. Their sound changes from one track to the next. Now one might argue that it only changes a minimum amount, but it still changes. On the other hand the band never pretends to be anybody else, you always know you’re listening to Foo Fighters. In my opinion (and I can’t stress this point too strongly) what we are dealing with here is an experiment that Dave Grohl and his band of merry men had the will, the time and, yes, the luxury to attempt.
Was that experiment successful? In other words, does “Sonic Highways” actually capture the musical history and overall vibe of Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and Washington? Who knows? I mean, there might be a handful of people out there who know the musical legacy of all those cities well enough in order to answer that question and I don’t think I’m one of them. Bottom line is that it’s a tight and fun album which respects the listener and you can listen to it all the way through without a glitch. At the end of the day, what more can anyone ask for?