“Get back, hear that boy? Someone threw away your favourite toy for good,” snarls Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters’ fiery return. Is this the stadium rock poster boys starting anew? Or just chrome-plating the car and racing on? Now back with their 12th album ‘Your Favorite Toy‘, it sounds like they hella mean business with some real grit, rock, and roll as they beam a “big smile” and “try not to choke on the glitter”.
This decade has been one of reflection for the band so far. ‘Medicine At Midnight’ was a joyous celebration of all things Foos (fittingly to accompany a 25th anniversary tour scrapped due to COVID) while the late day peak ‘But Here We Are’ showcased the band’s undersung knack for heart and subtlety as they wrestled with the grief of losing Grohl’s mother, Virginia, and their universally beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins. Now ‘Your Favourite Toy’ is here to kick open the saloon doors and let the brawl commence. A raspy and distorted Grohl lays out the band’s MO for their next era: “Candy and dopamine, so sweet it’s gonna gimme the shivers”.
Lazy Foos naysayers will say “they’ve released their song again”. Sure, there’s usually a certain familiarity when it comes to the band, and ‘Your Favorite Toy’ has that freewheelin’ life and exuberance from 1997 career high ‘The Colour And The Shape’, heightened by that “THERE’S A BOMB ON THE BUS” metal spirit and urgency of the Lemmy-endorsed ‘White Limo’ and ‘Wasting Light‘ era. However, Grohl seems unstoppable and laser-focussed; there’s a little bit of that Nine Inch Nails industrial stomp courtesy of the Ilan Rubin drummer swap (albeit sped up like a runaway train). It’s all sent warp speed into the future with those sci-fi synth shimmers. If you think Foos are meat and potatoes, then they’ve dropped more than a pinch of spice to that classic recipe and frisbee’d the plate at the waiter’s face. Cheque please!
“Is that pressure hard enough?” asks Grohl knowingly over the chorus. Foos have certainly turned up the heat, shifting to a more thrilling gear when they could cruise down the slow lane to keep things rolling across the stadium and festival circuit this summer. Despite having made headlines in recent years for drummer squabbles and infidelity, their comeback single is snarlingly unapologetic. This is not a cap-in-hand call for peace, love and understanding. It’s a middle finger statement of intent: “Nah nah nah!”