Foo Fighters
Sonic Highways
Roswell / RCA
Street: 11.10
Foo Fighters = Nirvana + Them Crooked Vultures – metal + arena rock

The Foo Fighters have become a band where every time a new album is released, it becomes an event. However, if you strip away the band’s history, the HBO special and the “eight songs in eight cities” aspect to this record—you’re getting what sounds like an average Foo Fighters album. Considering that the band came off of Wasting Light, a critical mega-success of a record, Dave Grohl and company earned leeway in wanting to try something different with their music. It all sounds fantastic, and the work Butch Vig did is amazing on the production end but, for true fans, you know you’re not going to hear them play more than two of these new songs in live gigs a year from now, much like 2002’s One By One, which mostly sounds like filler. It’s an amazing album and fine achievement in recording, but ultimately depressing when you can hear the album’s fate. –Gavin Sheehan