With the upcoming release of the band’s eighth studio album, Sonic Highways, out on the 10th November 2014, Foo Fighters have issued their lead single, Something From Nothing, but unfortunately it’s not quite the hard hitting return for the band fans might have been hoping for. It’s not to say that its a bad song as such, it’s just that it’s a long way from the thundering might of their great singles of the past, so if you were hoping for anything like This Is A Call, Monkey Wrench, Break Out, All My Life, Time Like These or The Pretender, you might be a little disappointed.
The reason for us is the intention of the album to take influence from the music of eight key cities in America, which instantly means that we were always going to be getting something a little bit different in the latest material. While it makes for an interesting concept approach, it’s resulted in a new single that has been inspired by the music of Chicago, so it’s a funked-up, metal machine fuelled shlomo escalator of a track.
While you can’t help but admire Foo Fighter’s attempt to do something different, it does mean that the end result seems to take itself a whole lot more seriously than much of the band’s previous output. There isn’t a hint of the self deprecating humour that we loved in a lot of their early material and as a relatively slow paced song in parts it doesn’t have much in the way of drive or action outside of the heavier sections of the track.
It’s definitely not their only slow building release over the years and though there are hints of the progression that makes All My Life the great track that it is, it doesn’t have quite as much attack in the quieter sections. However, when it gets up to speed it delivers a lot of ferocity and snarl, which should be enough to see it appreciated by the hard rocking music listener.
We’ve got mixed opinions of Something From Nothing and we’d be willing to bet that we’re not alone, but there’s always something about a Foo Fighters track that keeps pulling you back in and that’s the case to some degree with the band’s latest single. It reminds us a lot of Them Crooked Vultures, but despite being a new breakout direction for the band, it still holds onto a little of the recognisable sound of the eff effers.
The more we listen to the song, the more it takes hold and while we can still see the same holes that we noticed on the first listen, there’s a lot to appreciate. We wish there was a bit more snap to the guitar riffs during the slower portions of the song, but then we can’t really fault them when they’re working their way through the gears to the power plays later on in the track. Take a listen to the single below and let us know what you think.
Foo Fighters, Something For Nothing single review: 3.3/5
