Sonic Highways

It's a collection of eight good and great Foo Fighters songs. [15 Nov 2014, p.52]

It's a cool premise, but despite the ambition and guest musicians on each song, Sonic Highways sounds like every other Foo Fighters record.

Sonic Highways doesn’t break new ground, but for those accustomed to these five guys’ wares, it’ll suffice when they desire a concise reaffirmation of what makes them appealing in the first place.

The blueprint's not rewritten, but Something From Nothing and The Feast & The Famine dose the Foos format with steroids, while Grohl's earnest delivery redeems the occasional detour into cliche. [Dec 2014, p.89]

Grohl and Co. have celebrated the veins of American rock music from coast to coast, but their fear of over-administering each city’s sonic roots into their own blueprint has hindered the progression of Sonic Highways into a cohesive unit, and instead resulted in a challenging listen.

Even if there's a lingering predictability in the paths the Foo Fighters follow on Sonic Highways, they nevertheless know how to make this familiar journey pleasurable.

Everything musical seems startlingly familiar, and not in the paying-homage-to-the-denizens-of-rock-past way the album’s conceit might have you imagine.

While occasionally striking like a brilliant, blinding lightning bolt, they all too often seem to ride a wave of bleating mediocrity to multi-platinum heights.

Overseen by Butch Vig, there's a continuity to Sonic Highways, in spite of its on-the-road creation. At the same time, the band stretch themselves. [Dec 2014, p.117]

Eight songs, many of which feel too long; recorded in eight cities that don’t really leave their unique mark on the sonic side of the experience; each with a guest who is, at best, an apparition dancing in the shadows of the spot-lit stars; yielding eight largely forgettable arrangements that won’t make a dent on any fan’s all-time top 10.

Unfortunately Sonic Highways only delivers occasionally.

All told, it’s a solid record with no glaring weak points (a first for the Foo Fighters) and with some of the band’s more rewarding and adventurous songwriting.

Grohl’s quest is representative of an enthusiasm—rounded out by some overwrought lyrics--nearly swallowing itself alive, sure, but with Foo Fighters, hating the game seems more right than hating the player.

[A] remarkable exploration of and ode to American music.

While the band and management are careful not to peg Sonic Highways as the soundtrack to the cable television series, the Foo Fighters’ eighth studio LP certainly remains a concept album and requires that lens to be appreciated fully.

Despite the high concept, this isn't exactly a major overhaul for the Foos: The eight songs on Sonic Highways have the same monster guitar crunch, pummeling crescendos and hard-pleading bridges found on every album they've made this millennium.

It's a muscular, Butch-Vig-produced behemoth that impresses. [Dec 2014, p.77]

Sonic Highways isn’t a bad album, merely a disappointingly bloodless one; after all, one thing Foo Fighters have never lacked in the past is immediacy.

Overall, this is a record of familiar virtues and failings: robust, full-throttle pop-rock, rather overstuffed with identikit stadium anthems, but largely redeemed by the force of Dave Grohl’s personality.

Sonic Highways is an attempt to channel a different musical energy, but it's one that Grohl does a far better job capturing with his camera crew.

Like all of the band’s albums, Sonic Highways ends up enjoyable, sweet and insubstantial.

The lyrics cleverly incorporate words and ideas from each programme. But a soundtrack featuring all the oddball artists from the series would have been more interesting.

Foo Fighters are providing the map, it’s up to the audience to explore. Therein lies its beauty.

Ironically, in trying to tap into the mystique of America’s most storied cities, Foo Fighters completely demystify their own creative process, effectively turning the Sonic Highways project into a glorified homework assignment--educational, perhaps, but laboriously procedural.

Twenty years deep into its career, Foo Fighters could've used a bit of a shake-up, if not a makeover, to re-energize its music. But Sonic Highways provides little more than window-dressing on business as usual.

[The L.A. song, “Outside”] manages to capture some of the essence of the West Coast city, but the details of “canyons” and “sirens” seem hollow, lack insight, and reek of lyrics that were hammered out on instinct, not careful consideration. This kind of a songwriting experiment keeps the Sonic Highways album from being essential listening. It’s more of a failed experiment, a diversion from a real Foo Fighters album.

As solid as Sonic Highways is, the entertaining making-of stories may ultimately overshadow the album.

Sadly, said stories [in the HBO series] are not quite as fascinating when told through the medium of the music of Foo Fighters.

When partnered with visuals, these songs will probably be a lot more impactful and resonant. As it stands, they're still pretty great. [Dec 2014, p.104]