Medicine at Midnight

Big riffs battle with the kind of nagging singalong choruses the band have avoided over the years, a combination that makes Medicine at Midnight rush by with the intoxication of a good night out. ... Medicine at Midnight is a speedy, hooky, and efficient record, every bit the party album Grohl promised.

Grohl promised a record you can groove to, and he delivered, while still maintaining a quintessential crunch that’s fitting for a Foo.

After a year that took so much, the return of the Foos feels like the culture getting back in credit. Consider the record’s closing track, ‘Love Dies Young’, which sparkles with effervescence that the last 12 months have lacked – it’s one of the best songs the band have ever put their name to.

It’s an exhibition of just what a simply, fundamentally good band Foo Fighters are, and how skilled with a tune and a melody Dave Grohl is. You couldn’t call it stripped back as such, but its less hectic nature throws things into slightly sharper focus.

Medicine is a barrel of tailgating, beer-guzzling monkey bros; the band’s loosest and most dance-able record in a decade or more.

With sticky melodies and a spring in its step, ‘Medicine At Midnight’ is an experiment that pays off, simultaneously adding a new shade to their sound and injecting a dose of fun and escapism when we need it most.

This is a characteristically strong, uncharacteristically sloppy (in a good way!), album by one of the few remaining shining lights of rock music. Greatness is almost a given at this stage.

Medicine at Midnight is the most upbeat and poppy Foo Fighters album. While the band has always incorporated elements of melodic pop as far back as “Big Me” in 1995, this is the slickest and most radio-friendly album to date.

Celebratory to the bone, the tenth Foo Fighters recording adventure is a bit like finding yourself on the best rollercoaster ride in town on a hot summer day, joyously terrifying in places, it ends well. Quite frankly, at this point in time, there is a strong need to connect with moments of such enjoyable intensity.

The Foos’ 10th album is upbeat even by their uniquely well-adjusted standards, returning to their core Nineties alt-rock sound minus any gimmicks, detours, or shenanigans. From the first track, “Making a Fire,” the album is brighter and more optimistic than anything they’ve ever done.

An essential listen for fans and a fair introduction for newcomers, Medicine at Midnight feels like the rare late-career release that genuinely earns its spots within the legacy setlist.

At a brief 36 minutes long, Medicine at Midnight is a solid addition to a discography that raises the bar for what it means to be a rock act that seamlessly evolves with the times. It also exemplifies how the group isn’t afraid to stretch their imaginations whenever the mood strikes them.

If you are cool with the lighter, quirkier, goofier version of Foo Fighters, you'll enjoy Medicine at Midnight for what it is – a fun, pop-rock album -- and it'll find its way to about the middle of your list of favorite Foo Fighters albums.

The new record is clearly an attempt to not only maintain their loyal legions, but also to expand their following through a more melodic MO. To that end, there’s a decided emphasis on providing the songs with compelling choruses, ready refrains and a sound that finds them operating within more catchy confines. To be sure, the band continues to rock both fearlessly and ferociously.

Medicine at Midnight isn't good because of the ways it pushes the envelope, but because of how upholds the band's status as rock torchbearers. This is the Foos doing what they do best.

They may have opened out their map a little more for Medicine At Midnight, but the Foos' territory remains reassuringly familiar. [Mar 2021, p.38]

“Chasing Birds” and “Love Dies Young” are very forgettable, sure, “Cloudspotter” (with the exception of the guitar effect in the verse, which reminds me of Torche’s “Admission”) and “Waiting on a War” are a little flat and uninspired, but overall, this is a decent return for the band and it should quench any Foo Fighters fan's thirst.

The result is a more vibrant sonic bouquet—or a polarizing direction. It depends on which Foo Fighters fan you’d ask.

There is something admirable about the fact they stay so firmly planted in their lane. Medicine at Midnight is unlikely to win over many new fans, but it will make the existing ones happy.

The band have smartly instituted enough changes to the process of making albums to stop them feeling as if they’re merely going through the motions, but their contents are there to fill in the gaps between the big hits on stage without suggesting a drastic drop in quality. By those criteria alone, Medicine at Midnight – like its immediate predecessors, a solid but unspectacular album – is a success.

Medicine At Midnight is strangely impersonal, with little to declare beyond its maker skill at the form. The lyrics, meanwhile, are often undercooked. [Mar 2021, p.82]