Twenty years after founding the post-Nirvana project in Seattle, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl manages to push one of the most important remaining rock ‘n’ roll bands onward into 2015 with Sonic Highways.
The album is the result of the band’s multi-city journey across America to renew their creative spirit. The idea behind this project is that the people, environment, and experience in which a record is written are the elements that make an album stand-out.
Grohl and company spent a week in eight cities with an HBO crew to make an eight-part rockumentary series that premiered a month ago on the network. At the end of each week the band would record one song—the culmination of drinking in the musical history of the city and local artist influence.
In an interview with Grohl, Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy summarized his musical experience by saying he came to the city “looking for a dime but found a quarter.” The Foo Fighters turned this quote into lyrics on the Midwest inspired, “Something From Nothing.” In fact, all of the tracks on Sonic Highways are impacted by interviews with musicians and industry professionals corresponding to the song’s regional impetus.
Artists that personify their home city on Sonic Highways lend a hand to collaborate on a number of tracks as well. Austin’s Gary Clark Jr., for example, comes through on the track “What Did I Do?/God As My Witness” with his expert southern guitar sound—a hard mission to accomplish on a record full of driving guitar hooks.
Sonic Highways’ ambitious concept doesn’t end up yielding a sound that’s anything new for the Foos, but the travelogue itself warrants a listen. Even if predictable in sound, the album serves as a rad ode to American music with voices from the past influencing the future, and Grohl’s monumental career bridging the two.
Voice’s Choices: “The Feast and The Famine,” “What Did I Do?/God As My Witness”
