Medicine At Midnight
by Foo Fighters

I avoided the comments before listening to the album but within a few tracks the words ‘contractual obligation’ reared their ugly head. Lo and behold, the astute lylecatcliffe had beaten me to it.

This is the music equivalent of WFH, firing off a couple of pre 9am and post 530pm emails, then spending the rest of the day lounging on the sofa, with a huge tin of sickly Quality Street, whilst trying to climax to back-to-back episodes of Homes Under The Hammer.

Lazy and bloated

I've never been a massive Foo Fighters fan - their debut being underrated and excellent and the Colour and the Shape being their best work, a smattering of great singles since and a great creative spark of innovation with Wasting Light - I wouldn't really call them an "albums" band. I saw them live in a stadium in 2018 (I was actually their for the support slot, but I wasn't calling it an early night) and they were absolutely incredible live.

Unlike the shot in the arm that was 2011's Wasting Light, this album doesn't feel essential but merely contractual. The title track sounds like an 80s throwback song without direction, No Son of Mine is a Motorhead rip off without the permission this time around and Cloudspotter sounds like if you put Foo Fighters 00s - 10s albums into a computer and an AI bot composited it into a single track.

Not a terrible listen, but I doubt I'll find a reason to ever want to hear it again.

From luigybetis TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/07/2021 01:12 | #265938 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is by far the worst album in their discography in my opinion. Really weak effort, I feel completely disappointed.

Responding to the comment below, this band has no contractual obligations. Dave Grohl has had creative control over everything since day one. He started his own record label (Roswell Records) when he started the band in 1995 and it's been on that label since. They only use RCA for distribution purposes.

So please, enough about the contractual or corporate crap. Being a corporate band is making the album you're TOLD to make. Nobody tells them what to make. Dave Grohl is also 52 years old. People change. You think Kurt Cobain would be writing Teen Spirit part four at age 54?

On first listen, it's a record that only seems to spark into life every so often. Overall, it seems to have a softer and poppier feel and is a reasonable progression from where they were with Concrete & Gold. The band still sound like they are having fun and, with the Foos, that's the point. Having given the record a few more listens, the songs come alive a lot more readily. There are some genuinely good grooves on here and it is a much more rounded album than C&G, which gradually became less pleasing to my ear. Their live show will still be unmissable...eventually.