Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

Foo Fighters return for their 11^th studio album, and the first since the sudden loss of drummer Taylor Hawkins: But Here We Are is a pensive, raw and deeply affecting statement from a band coming to terms with loss.

The record opens with Rescued, a weighty, dramatic and very stage-ready, classic Foo Fighters track. It’s filled to the brim with unrelenting guitar riffs and growling, meaty vocals from frontman and founder Dave Grohl, and un-messy, honest lyrics that immediately grapple with the sudden passing of Hawkins – “It came in a flash / It came out of nowhere / It happened so fast / And then it was over” – and closes with the rapid pounding of percussion (manned by frontman Grohl, who picks up the sticks for the record) and the whirring, phasing out of a stage amplifier. 

The tone begins to shift with The Glass, a notably gentler entry, which combines crunchy guitar lines and tender vocals: “I had a person I loved / And just like that / I was left to live without him (left to live without him)”. Nothing at All weaves an infectious baseline with choppy guitar runs and instills an eerie, slightly gothic energy. Show Me How, one of the highlights, sees Violet Grohl join her father on vocals in an impressive performance, her lighter, wispy vocals complementing his darker tones. 

The true standout is penultimate track The Teacher, an epic, ten-minute tribute to Grohl’s mother, Virginia, that opens with drifting, echoey vocals and a dark, ominous guitar line that builds towards an outburst of kick-drums and the recurring cry of “wake up”. Just when you think it’s over, the mood shifts and the track begins to take new form as something calmer, underpinned with sharp, low-tempo, transcendent guitar runs and the recurring murmur of the album’s strongest verse, “Try and make good with the air that’s left / Counting every minute / Living breath by breath”.

The record comes to a close with Rest, a haunting conclusion that opens with the sombre strums of an acoustic guitar; the percussion that previously grounded the record has been momentarily put down and packed away, leaving only smoky vocal lines and the resonant, twisting threads of the guitar – but, like grief, heartache comes before catharsis, and the track soon erupts with the overwhelming crash of guitars, the shake of steel drums, and the recurring cry of “rest” before, finally, the collection comes to a head with the heart-wrenching “Waking up / I had another dream of us / In the warm Virginia sun / There I will meet you”. It’s a massive track, tinged with the immeasurable sadness of loss, that lays bare a band at their most vulnerable so that you just have to sit with for a moment. This is quite simply Foo Fighters at their very best.

This is a band that has long since established itself as a reliable mainstay in the rock scene – they’re long-standing festival headliners, with a mass global following that’s been garnered over nearly three decades of hefty rock’n’roll riffs and gravelly vocals cries. Now, 28 years into their tenure, they have delivered an album that feels fresh, sincere and utterly heartfelt; the staple Foo Fighters riffs are still there, but the emotional weight behind the music is greater than ever before. It’s a masterful outing for the group, and a fitting tribute for Hawkins.

Ronan Fawsitt

But Here We Are is released on 2^nd June 2023. For further information or to order the album visit Foo Fighters ‘s website here.

Watch the video for the single Show Me How here: