By Josh Bennett

Sports Editor

Quality over quantity has always been a popular term in pop culture, and I want to believe that lays true for “Sonic Highways“, the latest offering from Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, but with the band’s time being split in the accompanying HBO documentary of the same name, which supports this new album, the music doesn’t seem like it reached its full potential of meeting what was advertised.

The heavily hyped album features eight songs, all recorded in a different studio across America and featuring the influence of that city. Each city was chosen either because of personal experiences from the band or because Grohl wanted to tell an untold story from the city’s music scene. These influences, however, are tough to spot for the untrained ear, since most of the influence is in the lyrics, while the sound mostly retains it’s usual Foo composition. Since the sound is mostly the same as their preceding albums, only having eight songs on Sonic Highways leaves this listener wanting more.

Let’s begin with how this album came to fruition. Back in 2013, Grohl produced and directed “Sound City“, a documentary honoring Sound City Studios in Van Nuys and the Neve 8028 custom analog console that mixed all the tracks recorded in the studio. The mixer would later be purchased by Grohl and put into his personal studio Studio 606 and recorded the previous Foo Fighters album Wasting Light.

The documentary was a trip down memory lane for many successful musicians who got their start at Sound City, such as Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Neil Young, Trent Reznor and Tom Petty, who later teamed up with Grohl and his band to record a jam-session-like album entitled “Sound City: Real to Reel“, which honored the studio and the console in Studio 606.

The film received lots of praise from critics, even garnering a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This led Grohl to want to expand on this and showcase music across the entire nation.

“I’ve been working on this for a year and a half. After making the “Sound City” movie, I realized that the pairing of music and documentary worked so well because the stories give substance and depth to the song, which makes a stronger emotional connection to it. If you know the story behind the artist, or the story behind the studio, or the song, it widens your appreciation for the music,” Grohl said to The Hollywood Reporter in May.

“I love music, I know music, I understand music, so I wanna stay in this world. But instead of just walking into a studio and telling its story, I want to travel across America and tell its story. So it became a deeper project. And I thought OK, this is going to be the story that will influence the next Foo Fighters record. We’re coming up on our 20th anniversary, we’re an American band. Each one of these cities have had artists and music that have influenced us directly, so let’s go there.”

So they did go there. Across America, the band settled on eight cities and eight studios to record the eight songs for their eighth studio album. With the help of legendary producer Butch Vig, these songs songs were recorded in honor of these cities.

“Something from Nothing” – Electrical Audio Studios – Chicago

“The Feast and the Famine” – Inner Ear Studios – Washington D.C.

“Congregation” – Southern Ground Studios – Nashville

“What Did I Do?/God As My Witness” – Austin City Limits Studio – Austin

“Outside” – Rancho de la Luna – Los Angeles

“In the Clear” – Preservation Hall – New Orleans

“Subterranean” – Robert Lang Studios – Seattle

“I Am a River” – The Magic Shop – New York City

To say that these songs are not good is very unfair. They are good songs, and the Foo Fighters do have a few great rock songs on this album that immediately are identifiable as Foo songs. “Something from Nothing”, easily the strongest track on the album, is one of those songs.

Many Foo Fighters fans, myself included, were filled with anticipation with the release of this song a month ago, as it was the first new Foo song in a few years. When the opening chords played, it sounded like a classic Foo song, reminiscent of “The Pretender”, with the slow buildup into the loud, up-tempo, guitar heavy track.

While the song itself is a very good rock song, it is supposed to be influenced by Chicago music, and while some of the lyrics match some quotes said in the HBO episode,  there’s very little Chicago influence, whether it be bluesy rock, punk or even some hip hop influence. Plus, the small instrumental influence in the song will not be caught by the casual ear.

This can be said for most the songs on this album. “Congregation” has very little country influence to it and “Subterranean” has minimal grunge elements to the music. If you aren’t paying attention to the lyrics, you won’t catch the city influences. Other influences are small, such as the inclusion of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band providing horns in the background of “In the Clear”.

Another note for this album is that each track features a guest collaborator representing the city the track is for. The only issue about this is that it turns into a collaboration album, rather than a Foo Fighters album, plus it’s sometimes hard to pick up when the guest contributes to the song, or its minimal like the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, or the background vocals of Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard on “Subterranean”.

If you are looking for a rock album, and a Foo Fighters album with it’s usual elements, you have one in “Sonic Highways”, despite the shortage of tracks. If you are looking for an album that has been advertised as it has been, it comes up a little bit short.

In this case, enjoy the music for the Foo Fighter sounds that it gives off, ignore the fact that the album comes packaged with an advertised gimmick, despite the beautiful album art, and sit back and rock out with these eight songs in the same way you would rock out to any track on the Foo discography. The album is the same Foo you have heard on the past few albums and should be listened to and enjoyed as such.

Use the gimmick to learn about America’s musical history and scenes with the HBO documentary. The “Sonic Highways” episodes follow the same flow as “Sound City”, which makes it very watchable, yet informative and educational for music history and appreciation, along with stories from famous people representing each scene.

“Sonic Highways” uses the tour across musical America to write the lyrics for the short album, but those lyrics are partnered with classic Foo sounds, making the album become just another Foo Fighters collection, and to this fan, that’s just fine with me. As good as the documentaries are, I don’t need to see the Foo Fighters reinvented. Neither do the rest of the loyal Foo Fighter fans. Their formula has worked for 20 years and counting and there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broken.

“Sonic Highways” Score: 7.5/10

Josh’s Top Three Tracks

1. “Something from Nothing”

2. “The Feast and the Famine”

3. “What Did I Do?/God As My Witness”