Your Favorite Toy

Hi Son,

About this time last year I told you about my experience with the Foo Fighters record “There’s Nothing Left to Lose.” I’ve been an avid follower of the band since. What I also mentioned was the loss of their long-tenured drummer, Taylor Hawkins. It happened in March 2022. To reiterate, his passing weighed on me immensely. There have been other artists lost from this universe around his passing, but given my admiration of Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters it was the first time the loss of an artist really impacted me. It impacted the band too, especially Dave. They had just dropped their tenth studio album “Medicine at Midnight” at year before. Taylor’s shoes were almost impossible to follow. Dave and the band would release their eleventh record “But Here We Are” in June 2003. However, the band did not record that album with a replacement for Taylor, rather Dave performed the drum parts himself. That was the first time since “The Colour and the Shape” that he had done that. Shortly before the release of “But Here We Are” Dave hired Josh Freese to drum with the band as they promoted “But Here We Are.” I was fortunate to have seen them play that summer at the 150th Anniversary of the Harley Davidson festival just a couple of miles of where your mom and me lived in Milwaukee. Here’s a video of my terrible singing along to Dave that night.

Josh Freese would be with the band for about two years, until he was infamously fired from the band in May 2025. It wouldn’t be until a year later that Dave provided some closure to the situation in an interview earlier this year. Dave would say in the interview that “he didn’t feel our music really resonated with him" which contributed to his release. The Foo Fighters would find a new drummer a few months after firing Josh. That person is Ilan Rubin. Rubin is most known for drumming in Nine Inch Nails from 2009-2025. Ironically, after Rubin left NIN and went to the Foo Fighters, Josh Freese would go on to drum for Nine Inch Nails! Rubin also became the youngest member to be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 with Nine Inch Nails at the age of 32 (oh to be 32 again). The band would move forward in recording what was to be their twelfth studio album.

I want to go back and talk about the timeline between “There’s Nothing Left to Lose” and leading up to album #12. For most of the 21st century the band has experimented with some interesting concepts. On “In Your Honor” they would release a double album with the second CD/record being mainly low key acoustic tracks. It’s actually really good. On “Sonic Highways” they released an 8-track record where every track coincided with a city visited by Dave. There was a HBO documentary series released in tandem with the album. They tried out some different sounds and concepts with their next three being “Concrete and Gold,” “Medicine at Midnight” and “But Here We Are.” The band really has expanded their scope over two plus decades. However, for album #12, it was more of a “return to form” for them. Sometimes I get really annoyed with that term “return to form.” It waters down all of the efforts they’ve tried veering away from their early work. The name of this album is “Your Favorite Toy.”

When a band returns to “form” it’s almost nearly impossible to do. Their form was when they were mostly 20-somethings and their are octaves and yells that the lead vocalist can’t do as well in their 40s or 50s (sorry Eddie Vedder, but you ain’t ever going to sing “Oceans” the way you did in the 90s). Welp, Dave Grohl does not fit that bill. Not one damn bit. The first track in “Your Favorite Toy” fits the bill of what I said a year ago that “The Foos have a habit of kicking you in the balls with their opening tracks.” This was another barn burner called “Caught in the Echo.” It does not hold back from the beginning and already Dave is maxing out his screams with the first line. It’s a perfect opener. Honestly I can’t see how this song would go anywhere else on the tracklist. What really gets me about this song is not so much the intensity of it. It’s when the song goes into the bridge. I think Dave is as good as anyone at dialing it up to an 11 and then bringing it back down to where his voice literally melts in with the music from the band. The bridge is beautiful and contrasts so wonderfully with the rest of the song.

The second track “Of All the People” continues the momentum with another heavy driving song that does not dial back at any point. Then we head into track three, “Window.” This song epitomizes why I love Dave’s vocals so much. The mood shifts in “Window” and his vocals once again melt into the rest of the sound of the band. Some of my favorite songs by the Foo Fighters carry this distinction like “Generator” or “Headwires.” I love the guitar riff throughout the song by Chris (Shiflett). It’s so mellow and groovy. It’s up there for my favorite track on the record. Then we come to the title track “Your Favorite Toy.” This song comes out sounding almost exactly like you would expect if you thought about what the title “Your Favorite Toy” meant. It is Dave taunting you, as if you were another kid, with “Nyah nyah nyah, nyah nyah nyah.” The music is somewhat “Rockabilly” which isn’t my favorite, but the vocals and lyrics make up that deficiency for me. It’s a good song that has you just imaging in your head that you’re danging some kid’s Optimus Prime (I never had one though growing up) and then running off with it.

“If You Only Knew” comes in at track #5, which is a good song. Then we come to track #6, “Spit Shine.” This is up there for my favorite track on the record. The band comes out singing “Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh ooh” in the mics with a “metal-ish” sound and then Dave again proves that Father Time has not caught up to his voice. The song is loud, chaotic and creepy. I just absolutely love it. The band provided a press release saying the song is "a nightmare come true for connoisseurs of disemboweling, dismemberment and rock and roll." Something that the Foos are historically known for are their music videos. They are extremely entertaining and often has Dave playing some character that makes you laugh. This music video while entertaining does not have Dave dressing up like a “school girl.” It’s the band performing in all white and then going into scenes of a Zombie Apocalypse. To be honest, it is the perfect depiction of this song. The last minute or so then has (fake) blood spraying all over the band as they play getting their white clothes bloodied and more blood dripping off of their instruments. You really can’t unsee this after watching it. Now one thing I found humorous is that the band recently performed a Tiny Desk Concert on NPR. It’s a really great series where numerous music acts have come in and performed in literally a “cubicle” office space. One song I would not have expected was “Spit Shine.” Not only did they perform it, they led off with it!

Track seven “Unconditional” is another good and unskippable song. Then comes track eight “Child Actor.” This song hits some heart strings. One thing you’ll learn as you get older is a lot of children who become television or movie stars generally don’t carry that fame and fortune as they get older. Mostly what the general public remembers and wants to see are their roles in their adolescence. That’s pretty much impossible to do. Not only does the public want this, but more importantly those casting for TV shows and movies only see those actors as what they used to be. It results in a lot of instances where child actors in their adult years struggle with depression. Dave eloquently expresses this in “Child Actor.” It’s somewhat heartbreaking for me when I listen to it.

Say, are you who I think you are?
Hey, aren't you who I think you are?
Where have I seen your face?
I've seen your face before
I don't know who you think you are

Turn the cameras off, turn the cameras off

Track 9 is what I would call a very “Foo Fighters sounding” song named “Amen, Caveman.” Then we come to the closer “Asking for a Friend.” This song was the first released single off of the album. Dave is quoted as saying it’s “a song for those who have waited patiently in the cold, relying on hope and faith for their horizon to appear.” The character in the song is struggling on figuring out “what is real” and is unsure of what or who to trust. It’s an emotionally-charged closing track that provides more of an epic tempo and sound. Something you would come to expect from a closer on a Foo Fighter’s record. The whole 10-track record is really, really solid. It also is very short coming in at a run time of 36 minutes 26 seconds. It’s the shortest album released of theirs and to be honest it doesn’t feel like it. This album keeps growing on me and honestly has me losing track of time. “Medicine at Midnight” was only 36 minutes 35 seconds, but it doesn’t have the feel and the intensity that “Your Favorite Toy” has. This for me is their best album since “Wasting Light” (which I think is extremely underrated). If there is ever a record I have heard a band produce that is a “return to form” these guys did it. I really am blown away by what was produced by the band and Oliver Roman. As long as Dave can keep up with the screams, I hope they keep cranking out more records.

Love,

Dad

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