ALBUM REVIEW: Foo Fighters – Your Favourite Toy

‘…a dull record through and through, to the extent that one cannot help but wonder if Foo Fighters have anything left to give the world…’

Getting twelve albums deep into a career for most bands would be a remarkable achievement, but considering what Foo Fighters have faced, it perhaps feels even more so. Following on from the unexpected passing of legendary drummer Taylor Hawkins, the band released the acclaimed ‘But Here We Are’, and nobody would have critiqued the band for going out on that emotional high note.

Just shy of three years later though, and the stadium titans are back once more, with ‘Your Favourite Toy’, featuring the band’s brand new drummer Ilan Rubin. Having followed a self-proclaimed period of experimentation for the band, it was easy to wonder if the band would carry forth the energy from ‘But Here We Are’ to go back-to-back for acclaimed records. Instead, one cannot help but wonder if they should have cashed in their chips whilst the going was good.

We shall commit one of the cardinal sins of music reviewing here, and speak in the first person for a little while. I have to confess something: I would much rather listen to ten 0/100 records than just one 50/100 record. Once upon a time, I scored ‘Viva Las Vengenace’ by Panic! At The Disco a dismal 17/100, and I stand by that; the record was a complete mess that came about from one man’s unwillingness to reckon with his own ego. But conversely, the ensuing car crash was a genuinely fun thing to rubberneck at, and frankly, I would much rather listen to that disasterpiece several times over than whatever Foo Fighters have offered here.

Sure enough the rock legends have written 36 minutes of well-performed alternative rock. There are riffs, there is Dave Grohl’s trademark grit, and there is a drum kit. There are one or two highlights, and some production choices that we will get to, but beyond that… there is fuck all else to talk about. ‘Your Favourite Toy’ is a totally unremarkable and uninspired record, yet one that is admittedly adequately performed; Foo Fighters super fans may enjoy it, and every major rock publication will dig out someone in their office obsessed enough to deliver some equally uninspired adoration, but for anybody looking for a record befitting of stadium titans, don’t bother.

Two tracks do save the record from being a total write-off, those being the opener and the closer. ‘Caught in the Echo’ is an admitted rager of a track that blows open the record with rip-roaring vocals and crackling riffs, whilst ‘Asking For a Friend’ is a surprisingly dark and brooding cut from the rock titans, laced with a certain degree of theatricality that would have been nice for the band to have explored elsewhere on the record. Everything else in between these two points, however, is terribly formulaic, or in the case of ‘Spit Shine’ and ‘Child Actor’, simply terrible.

Even setting aside the by-the-numbers songwriting, the glaring issue that ‘Your Favourite Toy’ is just how unbearably loud it all is. This feels like the Foo Fighters are sat directly atop of your eardrum, delivering unpolished, unseasoned demo performances right to your cranial nerves. It is, at times, almost migraine inducing, and whilst a confrontational wall-of-sound can work, Foo Fighters simply do not have anything on this record that requires it, let alone anything that suits it.

It is hard to imagine anyone save for the most diehard of Foo Fighters fans wanting to return to this record. ‘Your Favourite Toy’ is a dull record through and through, to the extent that one cannot help but wonder if Foo Fighters have anything left to give the world. You have better things to do with your time than waste it here.

RATING: 48/100

For Fans Of: Queens of the Stone Age, Royal Blood, Death From Above 1979, Def Leppard, AC/DC

Physical copies are available to purchase here.