Sonic Highways [LP]

by Foo Fighters

Overview

Nobody ever would've thought the Foo Fighters were gearing up for a hiatus following the vibrant 2011 LP Wasting Light, but the group announced just that in 2012. It was a short-lived break, but during that time-off, lead Foo Dave Grohl filmed an ode to the classic Los Angeles recording studio Sound City, which in turn inspired the group's 2014 album, Sonic Highways. Constructed as an aural travelog through the great rock & roll cities of America -- a journey that was documented on an accompanying HBO mini-series of the same name -- Sonic Highways picks up the thread left dangling from Sound City: Real to Reel; it celebrates not the coiled fury of underground rock exploding into the mainstream, the way the '90s-happy Wasting Light did, but rather the classic rock that unites the U.S. from coast to coast. No matter the cameo here -- and there are plenty of guests, all consciously different from the next, all bending to the needs of their hosts -- the common denominator is the pumping amps, sky-scraping riffs, and sugary melodies that so identify the sound of arena rock at its pre-MTV peak. There are a few unexpected wrinkles, as when Ben Gibbard comes aboard to give "Subterranean" a canned electronic pulse and Tony Visconti eases the closing "I Am a River" into a nearly eight-minute epic, but the brief eight-song album just winds up sounding like nothing else but the Foo Fighters at their biggest, burliest, and loudest. They've become the self-proclaimed torch barriers for real rock, championing the music's history but also blessedly connecting the '70s mainstream and '80s underground so it's all one big nation ruled by six-strings. That the mainstream inevitably edges out the underground on Sonic Highways is perhaps inevitable -- it is the common rock language, after all -- but even if there's a lingering predictability in the paths the Foo Fighters follow on Sonic Highways, they nevertheless know how to make this familiar journey pleasurable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	11/10/2014
Label:	Columbia / Rca
UPC:	0888430900813
Rank:	22045

Tracks

1. Something From Nothing
2. The Feast and the Famine
3. Congregation
4. What Did I Do?/God as My Witness
5. Outside
6. In the Clear
7. Subterranean
8. I Am a River

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Foo Fighters   Primary Artist
Preservation Hall Jazz Band   Primary Artist
Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles   Primary Artist,Strings
Taylor Hawkins   Drums,Vocals (Background)
Chris Shiflett   Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Drew Hester   Percussion,Tambourine
Chris Goss   Vocals (Background)
Barrett Jones   Ebo
Benjamin Jaffe   Tuba
Ben Gibbard   Vocals (Background)
Pat Smear   Guitar
Dave Grohl   Ebo,Guitar,Vocals,Cymbals,Guitar (Acoustic),Vocals (Background)
Rick Nielsen   Guitar (Baritone)
Nate Mendel   Bass
Rami Jaffee   Tuba,Organ,Piano,Clavinet,Mellotron,Wurlitzer,Vocals (Background)
Zac Brown   Vocals (Background)
Kristeen Young   Vocals (Background)
Joe Walsh   Guitar
John Lousteau   Vocals (Background)
Clint Maedgen   Saxophone,Vocals (Background)
Gary Clark, Jr.   Guitar
Mark Braud   Trumpet
Freddie Lonzo   Trombone
Charlie Gabriel   Clarinet
Ronell Johnson   Vocals (Background)
Skeeter Thompson   Vocals (Background)
Pete Stahl   Vocals (Background)
Jim Rota   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Tony Visconti   String Arrangements
Foo Fighters   Composer,Producer
Greg Norman   Studio Assistant
Gavin Lurssen   Mastering
Justin Armstrong   Studio Assistant
John Lousteau   Studio Assistant
Jon San Paolo   Studio Assistant
Butch Vig   Producer
Shari Sutcliffe   Orchestra Contractor
Reuben Cohen   Mastering
Matt Mangano   Studio Assistant
Brandon Bell   Studio Assistant
James Brown   Mixing,Engineer
Kabir Hermon   Studio Assistant
Andrew Stuart   Photography
Charlie Bolois   Studio Assistant
Dakota Bowman   Studio Assistant
Ben Simonetti   Studio Assistant
Christopher Shurtleff   Studio Assistant
Jamie Sutcliffe   Coordination
Marcel Fernandez   Studio Assistant
Stephan Martiniere   Cover Illustration