..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: RCA Records
Released: 2014.11.10
Time:
 42:03
Category: Hard Rock
Producer(s): Butch Vig, Foo Fighters
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.foofighters.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2015
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Something from Nothing (Chicago, IL) - 4:49
[2] The Feast and the Famine (Arlington, VA) - 3:49
[3] Congregation (Nashville, TN) - 5:12
[4] What Did I Do? / God As My Witness (Austin, TX) - 5:44
[5] Outside (Joshua Tree, CA) - 5:15
[6] In the Clear (New Orleans, LA) - 4:04
[7] Subterranean (Seattle, WA) - 6:08
[8] I Am a River (New York, NY) - 7:09

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Dave Grohl – Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals on [1,2], Gang Vocals on [6], Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Cymbals & EBow on [7], First Solo on [4], Producer
Pat Smear – Rhythm Guitar, Producer
Nate Mendel – Bass, Producer
Taylor Hawkins – Drums, Backing Vocals, Gang Vocals on [2,6], Producer
Chris Shiflett – Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar on [1], Devil Pickin' on [3], Gang Vocals on [6], Producer

Rami Jaffee – Organ, Piano, Mellotron, Wurlitzer Electric Piano on [4,7], Space Keys on [8], Gang Vocals on [6]
Rick Nielsen – Baritone Guitar on [1]
Pete Stahl – Gang Vocals on [2]
Skeeter Thompson – Gang Vocals on [2]
Zac Brown – Devil Pickin' & Backing Vocals on [3]
Drew Hester - Percussion on [3], Tambourine on on [4,8]
Gary Clark, Jr. – Lead Guitar on [4]
Joe Walsh – Lead Guitar on [5]
Chris Goss - Backing Vocals on [5]

Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Charlie Gabriel - Clarinet on [6]
Mark Braud - Trumpet on [6]
Ben Jaffe - Tuba on [6]
Freddie Lonzo - Trombone on [6]
Clint Maedgen - Saxophone, Background Vocals on [6]

Ben Gibbard – Backing Vocals on [7]
Barrett Jones - Ebow on [7]
Tony Visconti – String Arrangement on [8]
Kristeen Young – Backing Vocals on [8]
Los Angeles Youth Orchestra - Strings on [8]

Ronell Johnson - Background Vocals
Jim Rota - Background Vocals

Butch Vig - Producer
James Brown - Engineer, Mixing
Reuben Cohen - Mastering
Gavin Lurssen - Mastering
Andrew Stuart - Photography
Jamie Sutcliffe - Coordination
Shari Sutcliffe - Orchestra Contractor
Justin Armstrong - Studio Assistant
Brandon Bell - Studio Assistant
Charlie Bolois - Studio Assistant
Dakota Bowman - Studio Assistant
Marcel Ferandez - Studio Assistant
Kabir Hermon - Studio Assistant
John Lousteau - Studio Assistant, Background Vocals
Matt Mangano - Studio Assistant
Stephan Martiniere - Cover Illustration
Greg Norman - Studio Assistant
Jon San Paolo - Studio Assistant
Chris Shurtleff - Studio Assistant
Ben Simonetti - Studio Assistant

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded between September 2013 – July 2014.



It's been 20 years since Dave Grohl headed into a Seattle studio and recorded some songs he'd written during his time behind the kit in Nirvana. At the time, Foo Fighters were less a band than an informal solo project. But over the next few years, the guitars got bigger, the hooks grew to stadium scale – and an act that could have been just another one-off à la Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds has become quite possibly today's most vital living, breathing rock & roll band.

On album after album, Grohl has figured out ways to keep moving forward, whether it was following 2002's arena-rock breakthrough, One by One, with 2005's acoustic-electric double LP, In Your Honor, or going back to analog for some live rust on 2011's Wasting Light. This time, he's built the concept of his 2013 documentary, Sound City – in which he brought heroes from Stevie Nicks to Tom Petty back to the L.A. studio where they made some of their most classic LPs – into a cross-country road trip of an album. During the past year, Grohl traveled to eight great American cities with an HBO crew, interviewing key figures ranging from punk icon Ian Mackaye in D.C. to Willie Nelson in Austin, and soaking up inspiration for Sonic Highways. These are songs about blood, sweat and evolution: The rapid-fire rocker "The Feast and the Famine" reflects on the Washington, D.C., riots that followed Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, and the downbeat opener, "Something From Nothing," cribs from Chicago blues great Buddy Guy's story of his modest first instrument: "A button on a string/And I heard everything."

Despite the high concept, this isn't exactly a major overhaul for the Foos: The eight songs on Sonic Highways have the same monster guitar crunch, pummeling crescendos and hard-pleading bridges found on every album they've made this millennium. Local guests like Zac Brown (Nashville) and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (New Orleans) mostly edge themselves into the well-established Foo sound. On "What Did I Do?/God as My Witness," a bombastic Queen-meets-early-Beatles anthem, the usually thunderous tone of Austin guitar whiz Gary Clark Jr. doesn't make much of a mark. But Joe Walsh elevates "Outside" – a diary of being trapped in pain and darkness – with a spaced-out solo that erupts into stormy apocalypse.

These songs are some of the band's most ambitious moments yet. The closer, "I Am a River," grows from sprawling to self-righteous over seven minutes, with Grohl getting emotional on top of an orchestra. On the other end of the spectrum is the low-key "Subterranean," an abstract, Floyd-ish ballad about starting over after the end of a relationship that defines you – a subject Grohl knows a thing or two about. But there's not enough here that's as endearingly offbeat as the Foos' early records, or as darkly thrilling as Wasting Light's best songs. Grohl has said he considered making a more experimental record before declaring, "Fuck that." It's hard not to wish he'd taken a road that led to a little more adventure

Patrick Doyle - November 11, 2014
RollingStone.com



Foo Fighters have now been Dave Grohl’s chief concern for 20 years. The first 10 were spent minting the band’s platinum-plated modern-rock sound, and the subsequent decade was spent trying to remold it… only to have it settle back into its predictable color and shape. Indeed, it’s hard to distinguish one Foo Fighters album from another, since they all draw from the same well of arena-punk fist-pumpers, gentle comedown ballads, and arm-swaying sing-alongs that fall somewhere in between; as their Greatest Hits compilation made all too clear, a Foos song from 2007 sounds an awful lot like one from 1997. To his credit, Grohl seems well aware of the fine line between being unerringly consistent and relentlessly formulaic, and has tried to provide each new record with a fresh narrative. But these strategies have essentially amounted to hanging different frames around an unchanging picture—like a double-album opus that simply segregated the Foos’ habitual whispers and screams, or a back-to-the-garage throwback seemingly designed for garages big enough to house private jets.

That said, Grohl's latest plan to drum up interest for a new record could be his most ingenious: make the most elaborate, expensive EPK in music history and have HBO distribute it. Sonic Highways is the name of both the Foos’ eighth record and an accompanying, eight-part TV series documenting its ambitious, cross-country production process, with the band (alongside Butch Vig) recording each of its eight songs in a different city. It effectively blows up the concept of Grohl’s 2013 film, Sound City, to a national scale: visit a renowned musical mecca, speak to the legends that put it on the map, and hope some of their mojo rubs off onto new recordings.

As a documentary, the Sonic Highways series takes full advantage of Grohl’s unique status as a punk-spawned celebrity to deftly intertwine mainstream and underground rock histories. For instance, so far we've seen how Chicago-blues icons like Buddy Guy and noisy nihilists like Big Black were both fueled by the same impoverished necessity, or how hardcore pioneers Minor Threat and go-go greats Trouble Funk shone a light on the Washington that lurks in the shadow of Capitol Hill. As a promotional film for a new Foo Fighters album, however, it makes you wonder why its trailblazing subjects’ transgressive influence didn’t seep into the sound of final product.

Though it's all relative, Sonic Highways is the most adventurous Foo Fighters album to date, but it bends their trusty template in ways that bear little relation to the project’s underlying musical-history-tour gambit. (It’s not like hanging out with Bad Brains inspired a sharp left turn into light-speed D.C. hardcore, or digging up Roky Erickson’s roots in Austin has introduced sunbaked psychedelia into the mix.) Rather, at eight tracks and 42 minutes, Sonic Highways is paradoxically the Foos’ leanest record while boasting their most sprawling compositions, taking a more scenic route to their usual destinations.

Where most Foo Fighters songs have shown their hand by the first chorus, the highlights here gradually build up in step-like fashion: “Something From Nothing” may boast a typically teeth-clenching Foos climax, but it rides a surprisingly funky (if uncannily Dio-esque) organ groove to get there; “What Did I Do?/God As My Witness” stays well within Grohl’s power-pop pocket, but its stop-start/two-part structure suggests Big Star’s “Back of a Car” given a musical-theater makeover. And even songs that travel a straight-and-narrow path have a welcome sense of patience about them, revealing new melodic nuances along the way (like on the dreamy jangle-pop of “Subterranean”) or, in the case of "Congregation", unexpected dynamic shifts: what starts off as a standard-issue, cruise-controlled rocker in the “Learn to Fly”/“Times Like These” mold acquires a more intense energy, thanks to an extended soul-stomping breakdown buoyed by Zac Brown’s finger-picking.

But given the great logistical effort that went into the album’s creation—and the fanboy reverence Grohl exhibits toward his interview subjects on each "Sonic Highways" episode—it’s unfortunate that the regional essence of a given a song is barely perceptible without the televised exposition. Beyond illustrating that upbeat pop-punk is an odd forum for a discussion of the '68 D.C. race riots (see: “The Feast and the Famine"), the album boasts a bounty of special-guest ambassadors who are given little room to assert their personalities amid the Foos’ chromatic crunch: the New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band doesn’t have much to do on “In the Clear” but chirp up its mid-tempo riff; Joe Walsh’s bluesy fills get lost in the fast lane of “Outside”; and good luck parsing out the presence of Joan Jett on “I Am a River”, a gaudy Macy’s Day Parade of a power ballad that, just when you think can’t get any more overblown, piles on a false ending and string-section finale. The composite cityscape seen on Sonic Highways’ front cover proves to be all-too emblematic of the album’s overall sound: a hodgepodge of aesthetic signifiers that get swallowed up into a monolithic whole. 

Watching "Sonic Highways", you get the sense that the real purpose of the whole endeavor wasn’t so much to reinterpret the musical traditions of a given city as simply broaden Grohl’s lyrical perspective beyond his usual relationship-focussed ruminations and self-help affirmations. In some of the episodes that have aired so far, we see a shot of Grohl sitting down after completing his interviews to write a song based on all the local lore he’s absorbed; the episodes then conclude with the Foos performing the resultant track, as the lyrics—loaded with knowing references to “muddy water,” “the 13th floor,” and “bluebirds”—are splashed across the screen practically begging for I-see-what-you-did-there acknowledgement. Ironically, in trying to tap into the mystique of America’s most storied cities, Foo Fighters completely demystify their own creative process, effectively turning the Sonic Highways project into a glorified homework assignment—educational, perhaps, but laboriously procedural. 

Stuart Berman - November 10, 2014
© 2015 Pitchfork Media Inc



Nobody ever would've thought the Foo Fighters were gearing up for a hiatus following the vibrant 2011 LP Wasting Light, but the group announced just that in 2012. It was a short-lived break, but during that time-off, lead Foo Dave Grohl filmed an ode to the classic Los Angeles recording studio Sound City, which in turn inspired the group's 2014 album, Sonic Highways. Constructed as an aural travelog through the great rock & roll cities of America -- a journey that was documented on an accompanying HBO mini-series of the same name -- Sonic Highways picks up the thread left dangling from Sound City: Real to Reel; it celebrates not the coiled fury of underground rock exploding into the mainstream, the way the '90s-happy Wasting Light did, but rather the classic rock that unites the U.S. from coast to coast. No matter the cameo here -- and there are plenty of guests, all consciously different from the next, all bending to the needs of their hosts -- the common denominator is the pumping amps, sky-scraping riffs, and sugary melodies that so identify the sound of arena rock at its pre-MTV peak. There are a few unexpected wrinkles, as when Ben Gibbard comes aboard to give "Subterranean" a canned electronic pulse and Tony Visconti eases the closing "I Am a River" into a nearly eight-minute epic, but the brief eight-song album just winds up sounding like nothing else but the Foo Fighters at their biggest, burliest, and loudest. They've become the self-proclaimed torch barriers for real rock, championing the music's history but also blessedly connecting the '70s mainstream and '80s underground so it's all one big nation ruled by six-strings. That the mainstream inevitably edges out the underground on Sonic Highways is perhaps inevitable -- it is the common rock language, after all -- but even if there's a lingering predictability in the paths the Foo Fighters follow on Sonic Highways, they nevertheless know how to make this familiar journey pleasurable.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



Those horrified by the thought of seeing “Foo Fighters” and “high concept” in the same sentence might want to look away now: for their eighth album, Foo Fighters have gone high concept. Sonic Highways sees Dave Grohl’s band set up shop in eight different US cities in order to write a song in each, then film the results for an HBO series of the same name. All of the cities the band chose – from Washington and Chicago to New Orleans and Nashville – have fascinating musical stories, and they’re told brilliantly through the medium of TV interviews with the likes of Buddy Guy and Steve Albini. Sadly, said stories are not quite as fascinating when told through the medium of the music of Foo Fighters. It’s not that the band have ignored their own concept; Rick Nielsen from Chicago rockers Cheap Trick solos away on Something From Nothing, for instance. But there’s no denying that, somewhere in the mix, the great diversity of American rock music lost out to the trademark, blustery Foo Fighters sound.

Tim Jonze - Friday 7 November 2014
© 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited



Sonic Highways is the eighth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters, released on November 10, 2014, through RCA Records. As part of a companion HBO television series, Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways, the band recorded eight songs for the album, each in a different US city: Austin, Chicago, Joshua Tree, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. It is available on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download. The album's lead single "Something from Nothing" was released on October 16, 2014.

Despite initially announcing a break after supporting Wasting Light, Grohl later stated in January 2013 that the band had started writing material for an eighth studio album. On February 20, 2013, at the Brit Awards, Grohl said he was flying back to America the following day to start work on the next album. In an August 2013 interview with XFM, Grohl announced that their next album has been slated for a 2014 release, saying:

"Well, I’ll tell you, we have been in our studio writing and in the past few weeks we’ve written an album and we are going to make this album in a way that no-one’s ever done before and we’re pretty excited about it... It’s a little ways off – it’s not ready to happen right now – but I think next year is going to be a really big year for the Foo Fighters, without question."

According to lead guitarist Chris Shiflett, Grohl would finish the lyrics just before recording his vocals, the last part of each song. This time the compositions would drift away from "love letters and confused relationships" to deal with the feelings Grohl had regarding each city during production.

On September 6, 2013, lead guitarist Chris Shiflett posted a photo to his Instagram account that had indicated 13 songs were being recorded for the album. Keyboardist Rami Jaffee has recorded parts for three songs, one of which is entitled "In The Way." Butch Vig, who produced the band's prior album, Wasting Light, confirmed he produced Sonic Highways as well. On July 30, 2014, Vig revealed that the band had finished recording and mixing the new album and it is slated to be released a month after the Sonic Highways TV series. In an August 2014 press release Grohl spoke about the album, saying: "This album is instantly recognizable as a Foo Fighters record, but there's something deeper and more musical to it. I think that these cities and these people influenced us to stretch out and explore new territory, without losing our ‘sound’."

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 31 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic says the album "celebrates not the coiled fury of underground rock exploding into the mainstream, the way the '90s-happy Wasting Light did, but rather the classic rock that unites the U.S. from coast to coast." Philip Cosores at Consequence of Sound stated "the album plays out more like a bonus feature, something that can enhance the series’ enjoyment or simply further inform the experience".

Patrick Doyle from Rolling Stone noted that some of the album's songs are among "the band's most ambitious moments yet". Stuart Berman of Pitchfork Media was more critical of the album, stating "Foo Fighters completely demystify their own creative process, effectively turning the Sonic Highways project into a glorified homework assignment—educational, perhaps, but laboriously procedural."

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, with sales of 190,000 copies in the United States. As of January 2015, it has sold 394,000 copies there. In Canada, the album debuted at number three on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 25,000 copies.

Wikipedia.org



Dave Grohl ist kein Mann für halbe Sachen. Das ehemalige Nirvana-Mitglied hilft gerne aus (Killing Joke, Queens Of The Stone Age), belebt Erinnerungen ("Sound City") und misst sich voller Enthusiasmus und Tatendrang immer wieder mit den besten des Fachs (Probot, Them Crooked Vultures). Auch als Leader der Foo Fighters zieht es den Multitasker immer wieder in verschiedenste Gefilde. Ob Alternative-Sounds ("The Colour And The Shape"), überdurchschnittlicher Radio-Rock ("There's Nothing Left To Lose") oder aus der Garage geschossener Arena-Bombast ("Wasting Light"): Dave Grohl hievt seine facettenreichen Outputs immer wieder auf schier unglaubliche Levels.

Auch beim neuen FF-Album hat der Frontmann weder Kosten noch Mühen gescheut, um seinem Ruf als Branchen-Alleskönner gerecht zu werden. Mit seinen Bandkollegen reiste der Sänger im Zuge der "Sonic Highways"-Albumproduktion quer durch sein Heimatland und nahm in acht verschiedenen Städten acht Songs auf. Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle und Washington: Die Städte, in denen die Foo Fighters Halt machten, wurden sorgsam ausgewählt und haben allesamt in irgendeiner Art und Weise mit dem bisherigen Werdegang der verantwortlichen Musiker zu tun.

Doch nicht nur die Eindrücke der FF-Belegschaft, sondern auch die von zahllosen anderen Berufskollegen, finden sich in den acht "Sonic Highways"-Songs wieder; darunter Leute wie Charlie Musselwhite, Chuck D, LL Cool J, Joan Jett, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, um nur einige zu nennen. Mit all diesen Künstlern sprach Dave Grohl, ließ sie teilweise sogar mitmusizieren, um eine Brücke zwischen Vergangenem und Aktuellem zu schlagen. Es ging ihm um einen musikalischen "Liebesbrief an die Geschichte amerikanischer Musik."

Ein großes Unterfangen, das bei dem einen oder anderen eingefleischten FF-Fan für Angstzustände sorgte. Man befürchtete allzu offensichtliche Reminiszenzen. Die Foo Fighters im Country- oder Folk-Gewand? Das wollte sich keiner vorstellen. Doch mit den drei im Vorfeld veröffentlichten Songs des Albums "Something From Nothing", "The Feast And The Famine" und "Congregation", präsentieren die Foo Fighters – oberflächlich betrachtet – allseits bekannte Strukturen.

Den Anfang machen getragene anderthalb Minuten, die - lediglich aufgepeppt mit pointierten Black Sabbath-Anleihen - einen eher ungewohnt zahmen Einstieg markieren. Dann nimmt der Song aber urplötzlich Fahrt auf, schickt ein paar funky Rhythmen ins Rennen und mündet am Ende in einem tosenden Brachial-Inferno. Der Opener "Something From Nothing", in Chicago aufgenommen und mit Cheap Trick-Legende Rick Nielsen an der Gitarre, ist ein eher sperriger Zeitgenosse, aber definitiv ein typischer Foo Fighter.

Das anschließende "The Feast And The Famine" entpuppt sich nach etwas stolperndem Beginn als krachende Punkrock-Ode. Dave Grohl singt und schreit, während sein Gefolge im Hintergrund die Essenz der Washingtoner HC-Punk-Historie ins Visier nimmt. Rockt wie Hölle.

"Congregation" beseitigt die letzten Zweifel. Der Song aus und über Nashville, der ohne Akustikgitarren, Banjos und Mandolinen auskommt, beweist, dass es Dave Grohl nicht um instrumentelle, sondern um gefühlte Kniefälle ging, als er sich dazu entschloss, jeder einzelnen Stadt und deren künstlerischen Vibes ein Denkmal zu setzen. Grandiose Hooks, jede Menge Classic-Rock-Einschübe sowie ein Sänger an vorderster Front, der einmal mehr belegt, dass er zu den ganz Großen der Branche zählt, machen aus Song Nummer 3 ein erstes echtes Album-Highlight.

Der Anfang ist also gemacht. Weiter geht's mit den Songs, die bis zum Tag der Veröffentlichung des Albums unter Verschluss gehalten wurden. Das zweigeteilte "What Did I Do?/God As My Witness" beeindruckt erst nach der Halbzeitpause. Einem eher durchschnittlichen Alternativ-Gebräu zu Beginn folgt ein majestätisch intoniertes Happy End, das jedes Stadion-Publikum im Handumdrehen um den Finger wickelt.

Das gemeinsam mit Eagles-Gitarrist Joe Walsh in Kalifornien aufgenommene "Outside" schiebt hingegen einen ungewohnt mystischen Pop-Schleier vor sich her, während das schleichende halbakustische Seattle-Drama "Subterranean" mit aufwühlenden Vibes einen letzten Nirvana-Gruß gen Himmel schickt.

Dazwischen blicken die Foo Fighters nach New Orleans und spendieren dem musikalischen Ballungszentrum und seinem Aushängeschild Trombone Shorty einen der wohl eingängigsten Ohrwürmer des Albums ("In The Clear"). Getoppt wird das nur noch von dem energiegeladenen Bombast des abschließenden "I Am A River". Stapelweise Gitarren, Orgeln und Streicher, die im Verbund mit einer simplen, aber alles umgarnenden Themen-Melodie fast schon zu Tränen rühren, schließen nach einer knappen Dreiviertelstunde eine Tür, hinter der sich die Bandmitglieder genüsslich gegenseitig auf die Schenkeln klopfen.

Dave Grohl ist und bleibt einfach der unangefochtene König zwischen den Welten. In der staubigen Garage hockend und gen Mainstream-Himmel blickend setzt sich der Tausendsassa eine weitere Krone auf. Ein Hoch auf den König, ein Hoch auf Dave Grohl.

Kai Butterweck - Laut.de-Kritik



Wenn Dave Grohl etwas anpackt, kann man immer davon ausgehen, dass etwas Magisches dabei herauskommt. Sonic Highways , das neue Album seiner Foo Fighters, ist eine Liebeserklärung an die amerikanische Musikgeschichte eine vertonte Reise quer durch die USA. Jeder einzelne der acht neuen Songs wurde in einer anderen Stadt von Butch Vig produziert. Grohl und seine Bandkollegen Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett und Pat Smear wollten so das Energielevel hoch halten und jedem Stück den persönlichen Stempel des jeweiligen Aufnahmeortes aufdrücken. Dabei wurde die Band stets von einem Kamerateam begleitet, das die Studiosessions für die Nachwelt in einer acht Folgen umfassenden HBO-Serie festhielt, die auf den gleichen Namen wie das neue Album hört. Die Platte und die Dokumentation, die am 17. Oktober ihre US-Premiere im TV feiert, gehen eine einmalige Synergie ein, die es Dave Grohl erlaubte, das Schreiben seiner Songtexte immer genau ans Ende eines Tages zu legen, um sämtliche Erfahrungen in die Lyrics einfließen lassen zu können. Persönlicher und intimer als Sonic Highways war wahrscheinlich noch kein anderes Album der Foo Fighters.

Amazon.de



Dave Grohl machte sich für die TV-Serie "Sonic Highways", die seit Mitte Oktober auf dem US-Sender HBO und hierzulande auf Sky läuft, auf die Suche nach den Wurzeln der US-amerikanischen Musik. Er besuchte dafür acht Städte – darunter die Country-Hochburg Nashville und Washington, wo es einst eine lebendige Hardcore-Punk-Szene gab. An jedem dieser Orte spielte Grohl mit seiner Band, den Foo Fighters, einen Song für das gleichnamige Album ein, das seit Montag erhältlich ist. Die acht Songs auf dem achten Studioalbum der Band kann man dann als Liebeserklärung an die Geschichte der amerikanischen Musik deuten. „Something from Nothing“ ist etwa Chicago und dessen Blues-Geschichte gewidmet. Die Huldigung beginnt harmlos, baut sich langsam auf, endet mit schweren Gitarrenriffs und Schrei-Attacken.

Beim Besuch in Seattle stößt Grohl auf seine eigene Vergangenheit, auf Grunge und seine damalige Band Nirvana, bei der er bis zum Tod von Kurt Cobain hinter dem Schlagzeug saß. Das Resultat: „Subterranean“, eine überraschend mit Streichern, Lagerfeuergitarre und Pathos angereicherte Schmonzette, die mit Grohls musikalischen Anfängen leider wenig zu tun hat. Es ist zugleich der Tiefpunkt eines okayen, durchaus lässig rockenden Albums, mit dem die Foo Fighters neue Wege einschlagen wollten. Der dafür nötige Mut ist ihnen auf den „Sonic Highways“ aber abhanden gekommen.

© Kurier.at - Wien 2015



Mit »Sonic Highways« begeben sich die Foo Fighters auf die Suche nach dem Heiligen Gral beziehungsweise dem musikalischen Kern Amerikas. Parallel entstand eine Reisedokumentation für den Bezahlfernsehsender HBO, die im Oktober 2014 bereits in den USA Premiere hatte. Für ihre »Sonic Highways« wählen die Foo Fighters im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes neue Wege. Nach dem gigantischen Erfolg ihres Vorgängeralbums hätten sie sich theoretisch alles erlauben können. In gewissem Maße tun sie das auch.

Die Foo Fighters nahmen jeden Track des neuen Albums »Sonic Highways« in einer anderen amerikanischen Stadt auf. Dabei nutzten sie die berühmtesten Studios überhaupt, z.B. die Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, The Magic Shop Recording Studio in New York oder Rancho de la Luna in Kalifornien. Blues, Country, Folk, Punk – so unterschiedlich wie die Orte sind auch die Musikrichtungen, die die Foo Fighters in »Sonic Highways« inspirierten. Das hört sich nach ›buntem Mix‹ an, ist es aber erstaunlicherweise nicht. Denn »Sonic Highways« bleibt ein Album, das orthodox nach Foo Fighters klingt.

»Sonic Highways« hat lyrische Anspielungen auf Orte und Menschen. Außerdem gibt es kraftvolle Songs wie »Congregation«, aufgenommen in Nashville, der Heimat des Gospel: Der Song klingt in all seinem Bombast wie ›Kirche‹, jedoch wie eine Kirche, in der die Foo Fighters Religion sind. Das bedeutet, der Gospel und die Musiker, die Dave Grohl in Nashville interviewt hat, um daraus die Lyrics für den Song zu entwickeln, spielen eine untergeordnete Rolle. Das Bild der Reise durch und in die amerikanische Musikgeschichte hat folglich die Grenzen, die Grohl setzt. Die Foo Fighters ließen bei der Umsetzung ihres musikalischen Konzepts die Landschaften und Geschichte an sich vorbei ziehen und machten aus dem Erlebten ihr eigenes Ding. Die Fans wird das freuen.

Der Opener »Something From Nothing« ist ein klassischer Türöffner mit großer Steigerung von introvertierter Ruhe bis hin zum fauchenden Aufschrei am Ende. »Subterranean« kommt insgesamt sehr nachdenklich rüber. »The Feast And The Famine« ist musikalisch grandios mit einem Stop-Start-Riff, der musikalisch so ›störrisch‹ klingt, wie es sich für rebellischen Rock gehört. Und das epische »I Am A River« protzt mit jedem Ton damit, das Finale des Albums bilden zu dürfen.

JPC.de



»SONIC HIGHWAYS ist ein Album mit mehr Tiefgang und Musikalität, das man aber trotzdem sofort als ein Foo-Fighters-Album enttarnt.«

musikexpress, Dezember 2014



»In ihrem ›Liebesbrief an die Geschichte amerikanischer Musik‹ (Zitat Grohl) gelingt es der Gruppe ohne jede Anstrengung, Radio-Mainstream und simple Riffrocker, Punk-Nahes, Orchestrales und metallisch Vorwärtsrollendes zusammenzuhalten.«

Stereo, Januar 2015



»Dave Grohl und Freunde besuchen die größten US-Musikstädte – Song für Song, mit vielen Gaststars.«

Rolling Stone, Dezember 2014
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!