By Kevin (@Prufesuroak)
Foo Fighter’s Sonic Highways was much anticipated and for good reason. The album Sonic Highways was officially released on November 10.
The album is also tied in with a documentary show Foo Fighters Sonic Highways which premiered on October 17 on HBO and the core idea being every song in the album is influenced by a different city and was written and recorded in that city.
The album opened with “Something From Nothing” involved lyrics that are either directly taken from the interviews that Grohl conducted with the previously mentioned artists or some sort of reference to things that are a part of the city such as the Great Chicago Fire. The song itself is probably the best on of the album (if you want to be that way) not only do the lyrics delve deep but the how the music and the individual instruments blend together contribute to making this piece of music that we in this city can wear with pride. It also features Rick Neilson on guitar. The band talked about the musical history of Chicago and interviewed some of the well-known musicians who made this city; Buddy Guy, Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Albini and many many more.
“The Feast and the Famine" starts with head tearing ringing guitar riff in true Foo Fighter’s fashion. The song a love song to Washington D.C. which is of course known for genres like Go-Go, Funk, Hardcore Punk, and tons more. Grohl being a native of Virginia was part of the DC circuit during the late 80’s. The songs verse includes a lot of starts and stops, then transitions into an explosive chorus. The song features some of the members of Scream.
“Congregation” is about Nashville a town known for being the mecca of country music, new beginnings and tradition. The song’s lyrics comprises quotes from music legends that are known in the area (as with all the songs) and renowned places. The song features a guitar solo by Zac Brown.
“What Did I Do? / God As My Witness” opens with crashing cymbals and strummed guitars then suddenly stops; quite chilling. The song is centered in Austin, Texas.
The show though is much more than that, this isn’t just a Foo Fighters album, it isn’t just the fun idea of recording a song in different cities, the songs aren’t just influenced by the city but also by the people. Each song is accompanied by an episodic documentary, which is a whole different. Each and every episode by themselves are full-fledged history lessons. They have successfully managed to cram in a hefty amount of musical history, interviews, setting up, a look into the writing and recording process as well premiering the song in a quasi music-video.
The album includes 8 songs and 8 episodes along with them.