The eight track album opens up with a song called 'Something from Nothing'. This song was the first single to be released, and it was released on the 16th of October in 2014. The track starts off with a quiet introduction; accompanied by light vocals, shortly followed by the drums. One minute and thirty seconds into the song is when it really begins to kick in.
"Sweet ignition be my fuse, you have no choice, you have to choose."
As the song gets further towards the end, you begin to hear Grohls signature growl. The drums and guitar start to increase in speed & volume which results in a change of mood within the track.
"Pay no mind, now ain't that something? Fuck it all! I came from nothing, I'm something from nothing."
'Congregation' is the third track on this album and it starts off with a silent introduction for a few seconds, shortly to be followed by the guitars. This track is a typical Foo Fighters song, and it has a similar structure to 'Times Like These' from their earlier work.
"Send in the congregation, open your eyes, step in the light. A juke box generation, just as you were."
The start appears to be very soft rock, and you begin to hear a little bit of Grohl's signature growl throughout.
"I've been going through life making foolish plans, now my world is in your hands."
To me, this appears to be a very naive thing to say. Grohl appears very naive and non self-reliant. However, after 3 minutes the song really begins to accelerate. You hear the acceleration from Hawkins hitting his symbols, and the guitars collaborating and increasing the tempo. Grohl's vocals start screaming and growling profusely when he scrowls the lyrics of -
"Open your eyes, open your eyes, step into the light."
'What did I do?/God as my Witness' appears half way through the album as it is the fourth track. To me, this song sounds a bit country-fied and I think it is due to the way Grohl is delivering the lyrics.
"Your name, year of fame, I could see the writing on the wall. Come on, flip a coin, bet it's going to tell you..."
However the song has a silent break within it, and after the break Grohl gets his rock aspect back again.
"God as my witness, yeah it's gonna heal my soul tonight."
The guitars really stood out throughout this track for me, and I did enjoy the small country twist to the song.
The song that particularly stood out to me and impressed me the most was 'Outside'. Outside is the fifth track on this great album. It enters with some aimless plucking on guitars; but as soon as the plucking hits 12 seconds, all of the instruments unexpectedly enter with full force. On the other hand, once Grohl enters with his vocals, the instruments begin to mellow.
"There you are dancing at your altar. Beautiful earthling, dressed in Kashmir."
I particularly enjoyed this song due to the interference of the vocals on the chorus.
"And we can leave it all behind. I wanna get outside, baby lets go outside."
The guitars also have a moment to shine within this song, and so do the drums. This was mainly because there was a large instrumental piece and the tempo begins to pick up. There is also an amazing guitar riff before Grohl intercepts and finalises off the song with his vocals and the guitar then closes this track off.
I think the song that will be a Foo Fighters fans favourite off this album would perhaps be 'In the Clear'? Correct me if I'm wrong; but this track appears to be a very personal song to Grohl, as the track enters very strong with the powerful lyrics of -
"There are days I might not make it, there are days I might start breakin."
'In the Clear' also has a very catchy and repetitive chorus like many of Foo Fighters signature songs.
"You know I'm not in the clear, you are not in the clear. Don't you go count me out now dear."
To close off this smashing album is a song called 'I am a River'. The track starts off very soft with some aimless strumming on the guitar; very similar to 'Outside' - before some more guitars begin to accompany the introduction, alongside the solo guitar. At 1:34, after the long introductory instrumental - Grohl begins to sing.
"There is a secret, I found a secret behind a Soho door."
The repetitiveness of the chorus really does this song justice, and I thought it was a wise song choice to close the album off with.
"I ! I ! I am a river..."
In conclusion, I am actually really surprised because I like this album more than I thought that I would. The eight tracks worked, because all of the songs were constructed very well. This album is also a lot softer compared to their other previous albums. The only song that didn't particularly stand out for me was 'The Feast and the Famine' - hence why I haven't written about it. The song just didn't really do anything for me, it just felt like an album filler. Even though the lyrics are very meaningful, I just think that the instruments and vocals didn't give the song the justice that it deserved. Apart from that, Foo Fighters new album is getting a very well deserved 9/10 from me! Let me know what you think in the comments, or message me - it would be nice to hear off you! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it & I would definitely recommend that you give this album a listen if you haven't already!
P.S. - I know it's highly unlikely that Dave Grohl is reading this, but I hope that your leg gets better!
9/10 - ROCK ON !!
Hey -- thoughtful and worthy review. Thanks for sharing. Each song was apparently written and performed in a different city and was supposed to reflect the local musical heritage. I did not hear the connection on my first listen, so I searched on "sonic highways lyrics" and found your post. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHey -- thoughtful and worthy review. Thanks for sharing. Each song was apparently written and performed in a different city and was supposed to reflect the local musical heritage. I did not hear the connection on my first listen, so I searched on "sonic highways lyrics" and found your post. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was going to write about the eight songs being performed in eight different cities, however I don't like to write long introductions & I had already written a lengthy review on the songs. So i do apologise for that. Thank you for reading though, it means a lot! Where are you from? If you don't mind me asking.
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