Written Before Listen
The Foo Fighters are a band that I’ve always been indifferent about. They have some amazing songs like “Everlong”, “My Hero” and “Big Me”. Dave Grohl is an artist I have nothing but respect for. Anyhow, I just never thought of them than just your typical alternative rock band. I am also a fan of Nirvana with all of their albums being personal favorites of mine when it comes to alternative rock. When I found out about this album, I wasn’t initially going to listen to it but here I am.
Attempts At Sounding Modern
Tying alongside the production is Dave Grohl attempts at sounding modern. The opening track shows you everything you need to know. The female vocalists, the handclap breakdown and so forth is just showing you how cliche this is about to be. The ending of “Waiting On A War” where it goes from ballad to hard rock is extremely overdone and not unique or necessary. Don’t even get me started on “Love Dies Young”. Like that track is awful. Overall, Dave Grohl needs to stop appealing to the newer audience and focus on what made the Foo Fighters the Foo Fighters in the first place.
Influences
So if you Dave Grohl, you know he’s a man of many influences. He’s like The Game of rock music. Dave Grohl usually takes his Nirvana style with mixtures of everyone from The Who to Bad Brains. This time around he takes cues from a lot of 80s music. The title track even sounds like a knockoff store brand version of “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie. The 80s funk inspired rock doesnt stop there either. The opening track “Making A Fire” really reminds me of Lenny Kravitz out of anyone. “Holding Poison” Is a unique blend of hair metal, grunge and alternative dance that somehow works. “No Son Of Mine” has a little bit of Metallica influence due to the fact that Dave Grohl is doing his best James Hetfield impression. It’s clear to say that Medicine At Midnight does bury itself on influences more than your usual Foo Fighters album does.
Production
So the production is handled by Greg Kurstin. He has formally done production work for pop artists like Kesha, Katy Perry,Lana Del Rey and Carly Rae Jepsen. Knowing that, you know that a lot of pop production techniques will occur. I was right. There is a lot of unnecessary synthesizers and riser FX all over what’s considered to be areana rock numbers. I also cant stand that side chain compression on the drums. They sounds so forced. There are also moments where Dave Grohl sounds buried in the mix and super muddy. The acoustic guitar when there is guitar doesnt sound crisp, the percussion is mixed SUPER loud. Its easy to say that the production is pretty bad.
Subject Matter
So I don’t know what to say about subject matter, What are most of these tracks about. Dave Grohl is no stranger to rock cliches but god damn, its so annoying when he keeps on doing them. Like what the hell is “Cloudspotter” about? What the hell is “Chasing Birds” about? Sure there are tracks with clever subject matter like “No Son Of Mine” or “Making A Fire” but Grohl songwriting is very hit or miss on this album.
Favorite Tracks
So despite me thinking this album is not worth your while, I do think there are some songs that are good. Despite having a pretty bad hook I think “Cloudspotter” isn’t half bad. I think “No Son Of Mine” has a really nice riff and has an old school Nirvana feel to it. I honestly can say that I really like “Holding Poison”. It has a huge 80s hair band vibe to it and it doesnt sound corny or anything. Other than that, a lot of the tracks I just rather hate or could go without.
Verdict
Overall, I don’t like it. Sure there are some good moments and some good tracks but a majority of my expierence wasnt good. No disrespect to Dave Grohl though. I just kind of expected more decency but instead I got an over-commercialized arena rock album.