New Album Review: Foo Fighters- But Here We Are

Foo Fighters- But Here We Are

Label: RCA

Producers: Foo Fighters, Greg Kurstin

The eleventh album from Foo Fighters is a living and breathing documentation of an all-time great rock band rising from the ashes of one of the darkest periods of the group’s history. But Here We Are arrives a mere fifteen months following the tragic and unexpected death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, with lead singer Dave Grohl also facing the loss of his own mother during the intervening months. Expectedly so, the album is colored with the lasting effects of such life-altering loss, and plays like a travelogue through the various emotions and stages of grief. Sonically, the record returns the Fighters back from the dance-rock experimentation of Medicine After Midnight to their core post-grunge sound, with Grohl himself taking over all of the drumming in Hawkins’ absence, which pays bittersweet tribute and gives the album its undeniable heartbeat. The record opens in grippingly raw fashion, with lead single “Rescued” confronting the overwhelming sense of confusion, shock, and emptiness one feels in the initial wake of one’s death. As it progresses, the record finds the band further grappling with these losses, but doing so in a multi-faceted fashion that navigates a variety of sounds, tones, and perspectives. This results in a deeply satisfying record that is not only vast yet cohesive musically, but also wholly representative of the transformative experience one undergoes after the death of a loved one. Centerpiece moments like the title track, “Hearing Voices”, and “The Glass” are utterly haunting and mournful, while a track like “Under You” (easily one of the catchiest in Foos history) marries the hurt with a celebratory sense of appreciation and rejuvenation. A moment like this serves as a stirring reminder that our love and gratitude for a person’s contribution to our lives only grows greater in their absence, a knife that cuts with a stinging dichotomy overflowing with both pain and joy. No other track however wraps up the essence of But Here We Are more than “The Teacher”, a ten-minute opus written for Grohl’s mother that eloquently reckons with the harsh but pivotal lessons of mortality. Nothing truly prepares us for such a loss, or the challenges it presents,  but to not carry on in its wake is to waste the memory and spirit of your fallen loved one. But Here We Are walks the fine line of that mantra as gracefully as any album that’s preceded it. An instant classic and one that’s truly inspired and moving in scope.

Track Listing:

1. “Rescued” (Foo Fighters)
2. “Under You” (Foo Fighters)
3. “Hearing Voices” (Foo Fighters)
4. “But Here We Are” (Foo Fighters)
5. “The Glass” (Foo Fighters)
6. “Nothing at All” (Foo Fighters)
7. “Show Me How” (Foo Fighters)
8. “Beyond Me” (Foo Fighters)
9. “The Teacher” (Foo Fighters)
10. “Rest” (Foo Fighters)