Foo Fighters‘ 2023 album, But Here We Are, was stamped with the recent deaths of band drummer Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl‘s beloved, supportive mom. The result was a meditative work about loss and moving on from tragedy; it wasn’t exactly closure for this rough time, but it was as close as they would allow themselves to get.
The period leading up to the Foos’ 12th album, Your Favorite Toy, has been equally strained by personal and professional shakeups, including Grohl’s admission of infidelity (which resulted in a daughter) and the firing of Hawkins’ replacement, Josh Freese. But these incidents seemed to have awakened another side of the band — a looser, rowdier and more volatile side.
Foo Fighters have been down this path before, most notably in 2011’s Wasting Light, one of their best records. But this time Your Favorite Toy is more of a reaction to the tone and music of But Here We Are, which is also one of the group’s finest works. And because of that, Grohl and company sound more committed to their cause; if loud, aggressive Foo Fighters are your favorite type of Foo Fighters, this album does the trick.
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Look no further than the opening one-two punch of “Caught in the Echo” and “Of All People.” “This is just a test of a broken broadcast system,” Grohl screams at the start of the former, signaling Your Favorite Toy‘s intent. At times, the music isn’t too far removed from Grohl’s teenage hardcore band, Scream, or from groups like Bad Brains and Husker Du that were influences early in his career.
It goes on like this for the next 35 minutes, as Grohl and Foo Fighters exorcise their latest demons. There’s a sameness to Your Favorite Toy, but punk was rarely about straying from its scene. (“Window” and “Child Actor” come closer to the radio-endorsed alternative rock the group is best known for.) In the album’s longest song, the closing “Asking for a Friend,” Grohl sings, “Lay your worry down,” in a maybe futile attempt to convince himself as much as anyone else. It’s a near-perfect summation of Foo Fighters in 2026.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
