But Here We Are
No band could ever prepare for what the Foo Fighters went through after the death of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins in March 2022, but in a way, it’s hard to imagine a band that could handle it better. From the beginning, their music captured a sense of perseverance that felt superheroic without losing the workaday quality that made them so approachable and appealing. These were guys you could imagine clocking into the studio with lunchpails and thermoses in hand—a post-grunge AC/DC who grew into rock-pantheon standard-bearers, treating their art not as rarified personal expression but the potential for a universal good time. The mere existence of *But Here We Are*, arriving with relatively little fanfare a mere 15 months after Hawkins’ death, tells you what you need to know: Foo Fighters are a rock band, rock bands make records. That’s just what rock bands do. And while this steadiness has been key to Dave Grohl’s identity and longevity, there is a fire beneath it here that he surely would have preferred to find some other way. Grief presents here in every form—the shock of opening track “Rescued” (“Is this happening now?!”), the melancholy of “Show Me How” (on which Grohl duets with his daughter Violet), the anger of 10-minute centerpiece “The Teacher,” and the fragile acceptance of the almost slowcore finale “Rest.” “Under You” processes all the stages in defiantly jubilant style. And after more than 20 years as one of the most polished arena-rock bands in the world, they play with a rawness that borders on ugly. Just listen to the discord of “The Teacher” or the frayed vocals of the title track or the sweet-and-sour chorus of “Nothing at All,” which sound more like Hüsker Dü or Fugazi than “Learn to Fly.” The temptation is to suggest that trauma forced them back to basics. The reality is that they sound like a band with a lot of life behind them trying to pave the road ahead.
Dave Grohl gives himself over to arena-sized grief, reckoning, and resolve on the band’s most propulsive and purposeful music of the last two decades.
Following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters' eleventh album is a pensive toast to rock’s restorative power
With the spectre of loss, as expected, lingering throughout the album – even down to the ferocity of Dave Grohl helming drums for the first time since their 1995 self-titled debut – But Here We Are is a powerful soundtrack packed with overcoming and…
Dave Grohl pays tribute to Taylor Hawkins and his mother on Foo Fighters’ extraordinary 11th album…
Frontman Dave Grohl sounds startlingly fragile on certain tracks, as though still numb with the shock of drummer Taylor Hawkins’s death
Work is how Dave Grohl processes any major life change, so it should come as no surprise that But Here We Are arrived a little over a year after the unexpected death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022.
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Dave Grohl is sadly no stranger to grief. The inception of the Foo Fighters was prompted by the untimely death of Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain in 1994.
Dave Grohl’s affecting lyrics are the main draw on his band’s first album since drummer Taylor Hawkins’s death
With the sudden and heartbreaking loss of FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins last year, many fans wondered if the band would even continue. Hawkins had been a key part of the FOOS since the late-1990s, when he first appeared on the group's 1999 release, "There Is Nothing Left to Lose". While the FO...
Issy Herring reviews the new album from the legendary Foo Fighters! Read the review of 'But Here We Are' here on Distorted Sound!
On the veteran band’s first album since drummer – and Dave Grohl’s best friend – Taylor Hawkins’ death, every anguished, searching and sometimes triumphant song is about death
Foo Fighters - But Here We Are review: I’ve been hearing voices, none of them are you
The Foos grieve their drummer Taylor Hawkins, Arlo Parks reflects on newfound fame, Lola Young is frisson-inducing
The shadows of drummer Taylor Hawkins and Grohl’s mother, Victoria, loom large, but this is still a loudly life-affirming collection