Foo Fighters album review: All nine tracks, including the lone ballad, are stadium-sized

All nine tracks in Medicine At Midnight, including the lone ballad, are stadium-sized: Foo Fighters’ riffs are big and the choruses bigger still

Foo Fighters                            Medicine At Midnight                           Out Friday

Rating:

What does it take to be a rock star? The successful candidate, as they say on application forms, will need presence, passion, noise and hair (good or bad, just as long as it’s big). 

Dave Grohl has the lot, which may explain why he has featured in two world-famous bands.

With Nirvana, he was a sidekick: it was Kurt Cobain’s baby, and Grohl was just the drummer.

Medicine At Midnight (above) is short, sharp and shiny. It lasts only 37 minutes, so you could listen to the whole thing in the queue for Tesco

Medicine At Midnight (above) is short, sharp and shiny. It lasts only 37 minutes, so you could listen to the whole thing in the queue for Tesco

When Cobain died, he formed Foo Fighters and moved from the back of the stage to the front, like Phil Collins with more charisma (and hair). Grohl’s commitment is legendary. 

When he broke a leg on stage in Sweden, he went to hospital for treatment, then returned to finish the show.

Foo Fighters are not half as influential as Nirvana, but they have now lasted nearly four times as long. Where Cobain was a leader of the pack, Grohl is a pleaser of the crowd, as this new album confirms.

Medicine At Midnight is short, sharp and shiny. It lasts only 37 minutes, so you could listen to the whole thing in the queue for Tesco. Foo Fighters are still a hard-rock band, but only just: their crunching sound now comes with a dollop of dance- pop. 

As Grohl says: ‘It’s got groove, man.’

The album was inspired by David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Although Bowie later disowned that record, feeling it had been too commercial, the production, by Nile Rodgers, remains dazzling.

Foo Fighters’ producer, Greg Kurstin, emulates Rodgers’s glossy clarity and warm inclusiveness. The strongest songs here, Making A Fire and No Son Of Mine, are loud and proud but soft-hearted – sheep in wolves’ clothing.

All nine tracks, including the lone ballad, are stadium-sized: the riffs are big, the choruses bigger still. Finished last February, Medicine At Midnight is now a relic from another era, which only adds to its appeal.

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