Well here we are, album number 12 from the Foo Fighters. I must say, for the first time, I was not excited for a Foo Fighters album. After the drummer drama and Grohl’s image taking a beating, as well as feeling underwhelmed by the album’s initial singles, I went into this with a sigh. But for me they are a lifetime band, a band that no matter where I am with them in my life, I’ll go and buy the record regardless of whether I still am diehard about them. Green Day are another of those bands, but their last album was pretty good. This one, well, it’s underwhelming.
Right away from opening track “Caught In The Echo,” you realize that this mix is shit. It’s dense, overly heavy and a bit muddy. I was hoping for a cleaner listening experience so that was a bit of a bummer. The song itself is okay, a decent opener and a reminder of the Foos of old. New drummer Ilan Rubin is fine, nothing like a Greyson Nekrutman or Eloy Casagrande, but for this band he’s fine. “Window” is a bit slower and works; it’s probably one of the more interesting tracks here; on the other hand, “Of All People” is boring and goes nowhere. I haven’t seen a lot of hype about this record and I can see why; Foo Fighters have settled into their late phase where they are no longer blasting out songs like “Monkey Wrench,” “The Pretender” or “Walk”; instead we get slower mid-tempo songs with just enough energy to go over well live.
The title track, the album’s lead single, is probably the most underwhelming Foos single since “Something From Nothing.” It doesn’t blow me away and the mix is particularly awful; extremely muddy and really crappy, like a rough mix designed to freak out the speakers in your car. Just bad and that’s hard to say about a band I’ve liked for so long. “Spit Shine” is much better; still with a crappy mix, but an overall better song; faster tempo and sounding like good ol’ Foos. When they try to slow things down again on “Unconditional,” it almost works, but not quite. Overall, this is the most underwhelming album this band has put out since Sonic Highways, one I never revisit.
This album is just a bland bowl of oatmeal. Filling, but looking (and sounding) like mush with songs like “Amen, Caveman” and “Child Actor” that don’t mean shit, and it’s something you will likely not remember much about right after listening to it. Very high on the list for biggest disappointment of 2026.