Foo Fighters – Your Favorite Toy: New Music Friday

Artwork for the foo fighters album your favorite toy

Foo Fighters have released ‘Your Favorite Toy’ on New Music Friday – revisit Live4ever’s review and stream the album right here.

The last Foo Fighters effort, 2023’s So Here We Are, while heartfelt possibly arrived before Dave Grohl had fully processed the losses of Taylor Hawkins and his mother.

Now we truly see the aftermath, but given what has occurred in Grohl’s private life since, it’s more like a loud, conflicted reckoning.

Of course, twelve albums in, there are few sonic surprises: Your Favourite Toy bristles with muscular riffs, quiet-loud dynamics and choruses tailor-made for stadia.

That familiarity could be a liability, but Foo Fighters’ longevity, fuelled by the affable presence of Grohl, has long insulated them from criticisms levelled at less charismatic peers.

But the emotional framing has shifted; The Nicest Man in Rock™ is no more, recent controversies casting a shadow that inevitably informs the listening experience.

As one would expect, Your Favorite Toy opens with purpose: Caught In The Echo is a snarling, high-voltage introduction, its staccato riffs and explosive climax immediately reassuring the listener.

Like an early morning alarm in a day when one must get up and go, it’s their most electrifying opener in years.

The energy continues on Of All People, a blistering, punk-inflected track where Grohl spits venom at a figure, direct to the point of bluntness.

Lyrics like, ‘You know you should be dead but you’re alive instead’, are clumsy if uncharacteristically bitter, but the sheer velocity is thrilling.

Click here for the review in full