Review Summary: Is Dave Grohl trying too hard?
The last we heard from Mr. Grohl was in last year's documentary
Sound City, his self-professed love letter to a Neve console, which formerly lived in the Van Nuys, CA studio of the film's name. The studio closes and Dave buys the console, moving it to his own Studio 606. The resulting soundtrack showcased the Foos' collaborating with a bunch of renowned artists that had recorded at
Sound City, like Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Josh Homme, and Trent Reznor. Their collboration with Paul McCartney even won a Grammy. So, when you've got your dream console, in your dream studio, what do you do? If you're Dave Grohl, you leave it all behind and search elsewhere to find your next sound, make your next big statement --
to save music.
Grohl has been a missionary for "saving music" for a few years now, starting with the analog garage-recording of
Wasting Light to his remarks at the 2012 Grammys regarding "real music" being imperfect and performed by a human (not a computer), to the aforementioned documentary. His latest effort in this exhaustive tirade is
Sonic Highways, a short TV series on HBO and album of the same name that explores the "roots" of American music in cities throughout the country that each have been known for a specific music scene or genre across the years. The show follows the band travelling from city of city, ending up at a studio with some claim to fame and Dave interviews various artists that either recorded there or are from that city. Grohl incorporates quite a few sound bytes from these interview clips into his lyrics for the song that the band records there, sometimes in a clever and powerful way, other times it feels a bit forced.
This is primary problem with
Sonic Highways. For the last 3 years, Grohl has been hammering home a message about music being "real", from the heart, about personal experiences and emotions and using that to connect with the listener. In
Sonic Highways, the songs are mostly written about places, people, and times that Dave didn't see or experience, and in some cases was barely even alive for. He even admits to never having heard the Zac Brown Band prior to the band asking him to produce an EP for them late last year, yet Brown himself makes (an admittedly very good) guest appearance on "Congregation". Dave takes things he felt or saw during their brief stay in each of these cities, as well as what it was like for musicians in that city as it rose to fame -- and tries to make it connect back with how his concept of "Sonic Highways" connects America musically. Unfortunately, this leads to some largely forgettable songs and in some cases, over-wrought production when a group that already has 3 guitarists need to make room for a 4th. The passion behind Dave belting "These are my famous last words" on the first track of
Wasting Light is largely absent here. The very personal and relatable experience of listening to "These Days" never happens on
Sonic Highways. The closest the album gets to either of those is "Something From Nothing", which brings a bit of that passion back via an almost excessive use of fire metaphors/allusions and remains relatable about coming up from nothing.
The Sonic Highways show itself is actually very strong and a great way to explore the history of American music, it tells some very moving stories about how the political or social climate in certain areas of the country shaped not only individual artists but entire genres of music. But these are
their stories and
their experiences. In "Congregation", the chorus has a line about "a jukebox generation", referring to how early country artists in Nashville lived or died based on their ability to put singles in a jukebox -- how most people experienced music then. Was Dave ever in Nashville in the 70's listening to country singles? No, and it's cases like this that make it so someone who's heard the songs but hasn't seen the show won't be able to connect all these references. "What Did I Do?" makes reference to "I heard every word coming from the 13th floor". What the hell is the 13th floor? Viewers of the show would know it's a psychedelic rock band (The 13th Floor Elevators) from Austin in the late 60s, but otherwise that entire line is meaningless.
The funny thing is, almost all the songs on
Sonic Highways have solid arrangements, and the guest spots are very well done, particularly Zac Brown's and Gary Clark, Jr's. It's just not what I want from a Foo Fighters record. Coming full circle to the byline question, is Dave trying too hard? Maybe a little bit, but at least he is.
