“Medicine At Midnight” is a rock and roll lesson

Dave Grohl’s mother is a teacher. She probably wasn’t thrilled when her then 17-year-old son dropped out of high school in the mid-’80s to become a drummer for a punk band in Washington, DC.

The now retired Virginia Grohl couldn’t have known that the once sloppy guy would one day become a global star. Someone who would make rock history in Seattle with two bands, first with Nirvana and, since 1995, with the Foo Fighters, which he founded.

Virginia Grohl is a fan and had a folding chair at the edge of the stage for many years. Conversely, Dave Grohl is also a great admirer of his mother, who taught in public schools for 35 years. This means that the musician is a little more interested in the US education system than the average rock star.

Last summer, he wrote an essay in “The Atlantic” magazine entitled “In Defense of our Teachers,” in which he called for better protective measures for teachers during the pandemic. Following his mother’s recommendation, he advised more distance learning, despite all the problems that entails.

How close Dave Grohl cares about the issue was also evident at the inauguration ceremony for President Biden, where he performed with the Foo Fighters and dedicated the song “Times Like These” to the “steadfast” teachers. An anthem that is almost 20 years old, but seems to have been made for the difficult present. Unfortunately, the band chose a somewhat stately, reduced interpretation, which only reached the euphoric energy of the song at the end.

The reactions on social media were still enthusiastic, as you can never be seriously angry with the Foo Fighters anyway. Band leader Dave Grohl is simply too likeable for that, too honest a rocker who still performs even with a broken leg and occasionally does funny things, such as when he brings Rick Astley on stage for a “Never Gonna Give You Up” cover

[„Medicine At Midnight“ erscheint RCA/Sony.]

It doesn’t matter that the Foo Fighters haven’t had a real chart hit in ages, they can still sell out stadiums. Their fans love them unconditionally, and they will once again celebrate the sextet’s tenth album, which is released this Friday. Because “Medicine At Midnight” is a fine rock’n’roll lesson in which the Foo Fighters confidently play to their strengths. Crashing riffs, melodic choruses, crazy drum power – everything is played through in an exemplary manner.

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Occasionally the band also experiments with new teaching content. The title song begins almost funky by their standards with a syncopated cowbell, a prominent bassline and restrained synthesizer chords. One briefly thinks of Pearl Jam – Seattle’s other major band – which ventured into an exhilarating dance rock excursion with “Dance Of The Clairevoyants” in 2020.

But the Foo Fighters quickly straighten everything out again in the chorus, a phenomenon that can be observed a few more times when they move towards disco.

They don’t really dare to go on the dance floor yet. The fact that Dave Grohl called the record a “dance record” and even said “It’s our David Bowie ‘Let’s Dance’ album” falls into the category of exaggeration. The Foo Fighters are, after all, a band with three guitars and they make that unmistakably clear again and again when they howl, hiss and twitch together with Grohl in the aggressive “No Son Of Mine”. The fact that a female background choir appears several times on the record and contributes a few “Uhhhs” is not particularly important.

Despite all the conventionality of the genre, there are always impressive moments on the album, which was produced by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Pink) and recorded in LA, such as the single “Shame Shame”, which is accompanied by strings and whose pleasant, wistful chorus is reminiscent of early hits by the Foo Fighters . And the high-pressure dynamic with which “Holding Poison” delves between prog and stoner rock is simply breathtaking. In the ballad category, however, “Medicine At Midnight” only gets a 4+ at best.

The cheesy “Chasing Birds” sounds like a failed homage to Elliott Smith and “Waiting On A War” suffers from trivial, bumpy lyrics. Does Grohl, whose youth was accompanied by Cold War fears, have something to say first (“I’ve been waiting on a war since I was young/ Since I was a little boy with a toy gun/ Never really wanted to be number one/ Just wanted to love everyone”), he simply asks in the chorus “Is there more to this than that?”.

The singer wrote the song for his eleven-year-old daughter, who surprised him by asking if there was a war. The song hardly provides any comfort or cheer. But little Harper probably listens to completely different music anyway – something with beats and without guitars.