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Foo Fighters: Medicine at Midnight

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: RCA Records
Released: 2021.02.05
Time:
 36:51
Category: Alternative Rock
Producer(s): Foo Fighters, Greg Kurstin
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: foofighters.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2021
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Making a Fire (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:15
[2] Shame Shame (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:17
[3] Cloudspotter (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 3:53
[4] Waiting on a War (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:13
[5] Medicine at Midnight (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 3:30
[6] No Son of Mine (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 3:28
[7] Holding Poison (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:24
[8] Chasing Birds (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:12
[9] Love Dies Young (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/R.Jaffee/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:20


 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Dave Grohl - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Producer
Taylor Hawkins - Drums, Producer
Rami Jaffee - Keyboards, Piano, Producer
Nate Mendel - Bass Guitar, Producer
Chris Shiflett - Guitar, Producer
Pat Smear - Guitar, Producer

Samantha Sidley - Background Vocals
Violet Grohl - Background Vocals
Barbara Gruska - Background Vocals
Laura Mace - Background Vocals
Inara George - Background Vocals
Omar Hakim - Percussion
Jacob Braun - Cello on [2,4]
Greg Kurstin - Strings on [2,4], Producer
Alma Fernandez - Viola on [2,4]
Charlie Bisharat - Violin on [2,4]
Songa Lee - Violin on [2,4]

Randy Merrill - Mastering Engineer
Mark "Spike" Stent - Mixing Engineer
Darrell Thorp - Engineer
Matt Wolach - Assistant Engineer
Alex Pasco - Assistant Engineer


 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded between October 2019 - February 2020 at the Studio Unnamed house in Encino, Los Angeles



Right before its release in early 2021, Dave Grohl called Medicine at Midnight the Foo Fighters' "Saturday Night party album" - a self-evaluation that turns out to be pretty accurate. It also functions as an acknowledgment of an open secret within the band's catalog: for all their attributes, the Foos have rarely been "fun." Foo Fighters fix that deficit by diving head on into disco and dance, the syncopations and polyrhythms so dominating Medicine at Midnight that the four-on-the-floor rock & roll ravers almost seem diminished in comparison. Dance-rock isn't necessarily the height of exploration - the Rolling Stones cut disco the second they could back in the 1970s - but Foo Fighters have adhered to rock & roll basics for so long, the shift in rhythms seems nearly as giddy as the group's unexpected celebration of the power of the hook. Big riffs battle with the kind of nagging singalong choruses the band have avoided over the years, a combination that makes Medicine at Midnight rush by with the intoxication of a good night out. Ballads are still part of the equation - there's "Waiting on a War," a reflection of a lifetime spent in the shadow of combat that builds to a cathartic crescendo, plus the dreamy "Chasing Bird," which is the closest Foo Fighters have ever come to soul - but they provide necessary breathing room on a record that needs a brief respite from the relentless velocity of the rockers. The speed is crucial to the album's appeal, of course: Medicine at Midnight is a speedy, hooky, and efficient record, every bit the party album Grohl promised.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



Foo Fighters have been a reliable alt-rock institution for more than 25 years. A band with that kind of august track record could get bored or complacent with their job. But Dave Grohl and Co. just keep happily chugging along, putting out solid-to-great records, satisfying their enormous fan base with killer stadium shows, and keeping things fresh for themselves by coming up with interesting concepts (like their 2014 HBO doc series/album Sonic Highways) and tossed-off collaborations with pals like Justin Timberlake, Rick Astley, or Serj Tankian.

The Foos’ 10th album is upbeat even by their uniquely well-adjusted standards, returning to their core Nineties alt-rock sound minus any gimmicks, detours, or shenanigans.

From the first track, “Making a Fire,” the album is brighter and more optimistic than anything they’ve ever done. As Grohl commands a slippery guitar riff that ascends toward the heavens, a choir of women sings a sunny “na-na-na” refrain, leading to a foot-stomping, hand-clapping gospel breakdown and his latest lyrical confession, “I’ve waited a lifetime to live.” Then there are even more na-na-na’s, which, incidentally, aren’t by a choir at all, but the LP’s most notable guest, Dave’s teenage daughter, Violet, who recorded her own harmonies. Whether it’s a sense of paternal pride or sheer determination, Grohl sounds reinvigorated here, and that enthusiasm is the group’s guiding light on the record.

Although Grohl has spent much of his post-Nirvana career emulating his Seventies FM-radio rock idols, Medicine at Midnight evidences a pop streak that he’s only hinted at before. As with their last album, 2017’s Concrete and Gold, Foo Fighters teamed up with Adele and Kelly Clarkson producer Greg Kurstin, who has helped them hone their tuneful sensibilities. On the title track, they mix funky disco loops and acoustic guitar without losing their edge, and the serene ballad “Chasing Birds” has a melody that lingers well after its final chord.

Even the harder-rocking songs overflow with ear candy. The band tries its hand at some “Low Rider” cowbell on “Cloudspotter,” dabbles with video-game laser sounds and gospel vocals on the punky anti-war banger “No Son of Mine,” and attempts a Freddie Mercury-like vocal echo and quirky rhythms on “Holding Poison.” When Grohl swears “There’s got to be more to this . . . because I need more,” on the slow-building “Waiting on a War,” the record’s best rocker, it sounds like an arena singalong waiting to happen.

The band finished Medicine before the Covid-19 pandemic, which may account for its upbeat mood. Only the album’s relatively mopey lead single, “Shame Shame,” feels out of place, and there’s more than enough good times to make up for it — just check the LP-ending ode to joy, “Love Dies Young.” It’s one of many reminders here that concepts and gimmicks have their place, but Grohl is at his best when he cuts loose and rocks out.

Kory Grow - The RollingStone.com



While the songs that comprise Foo Fighters’ 10th album may well be among the glossiest AOR that the band have ever put their name to, this is a record with old bones.

Drummer Taylor Hawkins has previously described ‘Medicine at Midnight’ as more “pop-orientated” than previous Foos releases, and he’s not wrong. But the record is more than that – it suggests the future of the Foo Fighters is more interesting than you might have anticipated. Thanks to the ongoing menace of COVID, the chassis of the record – its innards, its celebratory themes – are of the old world, the Before Times. Band main man Dave Grohl started demoing these songs as long ago as 2019; the record was meant to be released almost a year ago. Its emergence in 2021 feels a bit like finding a tenner in your jeans pocket after putting them through the wash: a nice surprise that’ll put a smile on your face.

A lot can happen in a year, as they say. Tonally, and through no fault of its creators, this is a record that has little in common with the era into which it finally enters – and if you know anything about the last 12 months, you’ll know what a blessed relief that is. Opener ‘Making A Fire’ is joyous stuff, a marriage of pop quirk and punchy barre chords, with a chorus that has as much in common as The Eagles as the alternative rock scene from which Foo Fighters emerged. There’s a universe somewhere where the song soundtracks a summer that never happened. You might read it as a reminder of what has been lost – or a NutriBullet of hope for a hopefully brighter future.

Grohl’s – and thereby the Foos’ – PMA continues throughout ‘Medicine At Midnight’: it’s a celebration of almost three decades of good times (and was meant to accompany a 25th anniversary world tour). The frontman’s songwriting template – essentially the soundtrack to trying to find your tent on the last night of Reading Festival – has served the band extremely well over the last decade. Grohl’s status as an everyman rock hero has grown with each Foo Fighters release.

Speaking to NME for this week’s digital cover story, Grohl emphasised the importance of the small venues that COVID has put in jeopardy. He’s the perfect spokesperson for the cause. “Those places are much more important than most people would imagine,” he said. “A lot of people will just look at them as watering holes, but those places are training grounds for the next generation of musicians that need somewhere to cut their teeth before they hit the next stage.”

What Drives Us, his documentary-cum-love-letter to touring in vans – subject matter as on-brand as flannel shirts and beard shampoo – was also curtailed by COVID, with a release date still pending. Everyman rock status aside, though, no-one expects a musical reinvention from the Foos at this stage.

And yet ‘Medicine at Midnight’ features a generous smattering of ingenuity throughout. Early single ‘Shame Shame’, is a slinky earworm of a tune; a song that – from mournful cello to a stuttering, awkward beat that is dying to have bars dropped atop – does everything you don’t expect it to, and at every turn. Elsewhere, ‘Cloudspotter’ recalls Queens of The Stone Age, a band Grohl formally thumped tubs for, at their most interesting. Later on, the title track recalls one of those shiny, colossal rock songs that big rock bands started making at their height of their ‘80s cocaine intake. David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ is an obvious reference point for a song that is rarely obvious.

‘Waiting On A War’, a soft-rock plodder, is perhaps what your mate who doesn’t like Foos thinks the band sounds like (“Never really wanted to be number one”, Grohl croons, “Just wanted to love everyone”), but even this would likely hit different if sang in unison with thousands more voices at a music festival. And then along comes ‘No Son Of Mine’, a shuffling psychobilly-influenced stomper that explodes out of nowhere into a wild cacophony of breakneck guitar, psych-jam breakdown and – hold me – gospel backing vocals.

After a year that took so much, the return of the Foos feels like the culture getting back in credit. Consider the record’s closing track, ‘Love Dies Young’, which sparkles with effervescence that the last 12 months have lacked – it’s one of the best songs the band have ever put their name to.

Those who have followed Grohl through his days in DC hardcore – through Nirvana, the metallic ingenuity of Probot, his drumming to the stars and the rise and rise of the band that brings forth this record – will be enthused by the suggestion that this great songwriter is looking to expand his playbook. Even more will be delighted that an enduring force for good has returned.

James McMahon - 5th February 2021
NME.com



Medicine at Midnight is the tenth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters. It was released through RCA and Roswell Records on February 5, 2021, after having its release be pushed out of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Produced by Greg Kurstin and the band, the album shows a slight shift in the band's style, pairing their usual rock sound with elements of dance-rock and pop.

Three singles were released for the album: "Shame Shame" in November 2020, "No Son of Mine" on New Year's Day 2021, and "Waiting on a War" in January 2021. The album received generally positive reviews from critics.

After releasing their ninth studio album, Concrete and Gold in 2017, and touring extensively behind it through much of 2018, the Foo Fighters announced they would be taking a break in October 2018, with frontman Dave Grohl stating that although they needed a rest, he already had some initial ideas for the band's next album. The break would last for less than a year, as by August 2019, drummer Taylor Hawkins reported that Grohl had already been demoing material by himself, and that the rest of the members planned to start contributing shortly thereafter. The band collectively started recording for the album in October 2019. The following month, Grohl described the band as being "right in the middle" of the recording process, and that the album was sounding "fucking weird".

The album was recorded in a large, old house from the 1940s in Encino, Los Angeles. Recording sessions proceeded quickly, something Grohl attributed two things – that the material was progressing quickly and that they were recording in an environment where strange things kept happening. Grohl recalled:

"I knew the vibes were definitely off, but the sound was fucking on. We would come back to the studio the next day and all of the guitars would be detuned. Or the setting we'd put on the [mixing] board, all of them had gone back to zero. We would open up a Pro Tools session and tracks would be missing. There were some tracks that were put on there that we didn't put on there. But just like weird open mic noises. Nobody playing an instrument or anything like that, just an open mic recording a room."

Grohl noted that they captured unexplainable footage on video, but due to a non-disclosure agreement with the house's owner, who was attempting to sell the property, the footage cannot be shown. Contrary to the Concrete and Gold sessions, which frequently ended in nights of large cookouts, drinking, and parties, the sessions were wrapped up as quickly as possible. In February 2020, Grohl confirmed that the album was finished.

Writers described the album's sound as alternative rock, hard rock, power pop, and dance-rock. Grohl likened the album's sound to David Bowie's Let's Dance album, with him explaining that it's "not like a EDM, disco, [or] modern dance record" but rather "this really up, fun record" that is "filled with anthemic, huge, sing-along rock songs." Hawkins described the album as being more "pop-oriented" than prior releases, different from their usual post-grunge sound. He also noted the use of a drum loop on the album, another atypical trait for the band. One song on the album, "Cloudspotter", contains a guitar riff that Grohl wrote 25 years ago in Seattle, but was never able to find a song to use it in until now. Grohl stated:

"Some of those songs, the best ones happen in 45 minutes. Then there's other songs — there's a riff on the new record I’ve been working on for 25 years. The first time I demoed it was in my basement in Seattle."

Grohl states the album was inspired by "Our love of rock bands that make these upbeat, up-tempo, almost danceable records.

In February 2020, the band announced "The Van Tour 2020", a 25th-anniversary tour where the band would perform in all of the same cities as the band had twenty-five years prior in their first North American tour, only in larger venues. While the tour was originally scheduled to run in April and May 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the band to delay the tour to October and December of the same year. In May 2020, the band announced that they had indefinitely delayed the album, while the band figures out how to promote and sell the album post-pandemic. While the initial delay was due to the pandemic and the band's inability to tour in support of it, Grohl later decided to release it during the pandemic anyways, upon realizing its ability to be heard and lift people's spirits outweighed their desire to tour in support of it. Anticipation for the album remained high for the album; Kerrang! placed the album atop of their "15 Albums Still to Look Forward to in 2020" list.

Promotions picked back up again in November of the same year. The band announced they would perform on the November 7 episode of Saturday Night Live. Treading up to the performance, they started teasing new music snippets of a song on their social media platforms. On November 7, the band released the first single, "Shame Shame". On January 1, 2021, the band released the second single of the album, "No Son of Mine". On January 14, the band released the third single, "Waiting on a War".

In the United States, Medicine at Midnight debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart which was earned by 70,000 equivalent album units, 64,000 of which were album sales, making it the top-selling album of the week.

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