Sonic Highways, the 8th album from rock behemoths Foo Fighters, has been a long time coming. Following almost a year’s worth of teasing new material, the summer saw Dave Grohl confirm that the Foo’s new record has been documented for an HBO series, also called Sonic Highways. The 8-part series (directed by Grohl himself) documents the band’s journey through 8 American cities as they record the album with a whole host of special guests. With the November 10 release date looming, yesterday saw the album’s opening track, Something From Nothing, unleashed upon the world.
Something From Nothing opens with a melancholy melody and demure vocals, as Grohl sings of “a city on fire, sailing alone” over a mix of Foo Fighters-by numbers instrumentation. The first half of the song remains rather downbeat with a selection of little melodies intertwining throughout, before it picks up pace in the form of a funk-flecked bassline courtesy of Nate Mendel. “Fuck it all, I came for nothing” sings Grohl as the song goes from downbeat to intense in the space of a minute. A shouted refrain of “I’m something from nothing” precedes a fierce scream of “All rise!“, as a crazy solo and shouted climax of “No you can’t make me change my name, you’ll never make me change my name” bring Foo Fighter’s first new song in 3 years to a terribly magnificent close. Something From Nothing is up there with previous Foo’s classics such as the manic All I Want and emotional Best of You. If this is what we can expect from the rest of Sonic Highways, then Foo Fighters might have a stunner on their hands.
5/5
