When a band has a key member die, which sadly is all too common in rock n\u2019 roll, there are a few different approaches. Some bands take the \u201cbusiness-as-usual\u201d approach, almost acting as if the loss never happened; some completely stop, reckoning they can\u2019t go on without said member. When Foo Fighters\u2019 beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins devastatingly passed away in 2022, speculation was rampant as to how they could process a loss that gigantic. In the end, they took a road less traveled and wrote this entire album based on the themes of grief, loss and perseverance in the face of unspeakable tragedy. The results are astounding.<\/p>\n
But Here We Are<\/i> is a phenomenal record for many reasons\u2014most importantly, for its vulnerability. I\u2019ve seen bands release albums after a member dies and never even come close to broaching the subject, but on here, Dave Grohl goes as deep as he possibly can. Every word of every song deals with the emotions that grief brings, in heartbreaking detail. Grohl, who also lost his mother shortly after Hawkins\u2019 death, puts his heart on his sleeve so explicitly on this album, in a way that\u2019s simultaneously hard to listen to (I have cried every time I\u2019ve listened to this album) and incredibly cathartic. It\u2019s a real gift to all the fans who loved Taylor, to write something so gut-wrenching and emotional for us all to grieve to.<\/p>\n
Musically, this album also shows the Foos in their best form. For many records before this, the band have dealt in musical concepts, whether it\u2019s In Your Honor<\/i>\u2019s \u201chalf acoustic\/half electric double album,\u201d Sonic Highways<\/i>\u2019 \u201crecord in eight different cities with each song referencing the musical landscape of the city it\u2019s recorded in,\u201d or Medicine At Midnight<\/i>\u2019s \u201clet\u2019s do a dance rock album.\u201d It often works for them, but can sometimes hem an album in a little.<\/p>\n
Maybe because of the subject matter of this album, the music feels a little less combed over, and is more about serving the song. If the song needs to be a stadium anthem, it can be. If they need a 10-minute prog epic, it\u2019s allowed. An acoustic-guitar ballad? Go for it! This approach gives the songs a lot more breathing room, allowing for them to be what they want to be, and not what the concept of the record needs them to be.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one final detail on this album that always gets me, and whether it\u2019s subconscious or not I don\u2019t know, but there\u2019s a \u201cmissing man\u201d arrangement move that the band implement on a host of tracks (\u201cThe Glass,\u201d \u201cThe Teacher\u201d and, most emotionally, on \u201cBeyond Me\u201d), wherein the 5 members play a song at full blast, really laying into their instruments, without any drums on the track. In their absence, you can feel Hawkins\u2019 presence deeply, and the ferocity in which the band attack the songs almost makes it feel like you could hear his parts.<\/p>\n
But Here We Are<\/i> is a beautiful, raw tribute to an incredible drummer and musician, and is possibly the best Foo Fighters album of them all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":34791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5859],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-53351","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-foo-fighters","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/53351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/53351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53351"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=53351"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=53351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}