Grohl professes his grief through the only way he knows how – writing music.
I’ll take care of everything from now on…
overview
It is said that Foo Fighters are at their strongest when writing about misery, loss and grief. 97’s Everlong was superseded with Grohl’s divorce, while Times Likes These fuels the discussion of death. The very thoroughbred foundations of Foo Fighters as a band were conjured from the passing of Grohl’s bandmate and friend Kurt Cobain in ’94. A year later, out came the self-titled debut – a heated watershed of ambitious gut-wrenching rock from the heart from an all encompassing Dave Grohl who played pretty much all the parts.
Now almost thirty years later, our hearts are wrenched once more. The record, But Here We Are, is undoubtedly dedicated to his two pillars in his life: his beloved best friend and drummer, Taylor Hawkins – who passed away suddenly in March last year – and his very own mother, Virginia, who died in August.
Just like he did for his debut, Grohl has grieved in the only way he knows how. Picking up a guitar, picking up the sticks and writing. And writing. And writing. For fear if he may stop just one for fleeting moment, he’ll stop altogether and that’ll be it. Undoubtedly so, it’s an album where the lyrics came first and its creation was kept secret until Rescued was dropped almost suddenly. Rescued was the first time we heard new music from Grohl and an immediate sense of anger, disparity and confusion came tumbling out as he enthuses, “It came in a flash / It came out of nowhere / It happened so fast / And then it was over.”
A catharsis letting-out, foOS’ ELEVENTH WORK doesn’t find one line to walk – as they venture into every unknown in losing another.
SONG-TO-SONG
There’s a lot of heartbreak on an love-letter to those lost. Of course, that’s evident without it even taking it out of the wrapper. But, like the Foos’ feral Wasting Light or even 99’s There Is Nothing Left to Lose before it, it never feels totally lost in its own heartache. A cathartic distilling of temperament, there’s still a lot of arena-dominating powerhouses strewn in the mix as the band find a way to pick themselves up and start the journey again.
Through the acoustic stuttering of The Glass, “I had a vision of you, and just like that
I was left to live without it,” to the disillusioned hauntings of Hearing Voices, “speak to me, my love..” and even the piano-ballad of Beyond Me is matched with the composite rock of push-pull Under You, charged with Grohl contemplating, “think I’m getting over it / But, there’s no getting over it.” This is superseded with the self-titled, self-imploding with fuzzy guitar inflections and crazy drum gushing as Dave possesses a panicked frenzy of mere confusion with the sudden loss of his friend. For many, it may be hard to take. At this point, it seems that Dave is one more scream away from losing his voice altogether as his screechy vocals echo, “caught in illusion, it’s not an illusion,” and I gave you my heart, but here we are.”
The haunting tale of Show Me How reflects the incessant waning of time that grief brings, as reflection on those poignant days he had with his mother, “Spillin’ wine, thinkin’ of the time / Wrote you a melody / Rollin’ your eyes, held your hand a while / Need not say anything to me / Hear you loud and clear, Loud and clear.” Dave has the family support as his daughter Virginia plays a part in backing vocals, “I’ll take care of everything, I’ll take care of everything from now on, Where are you now? Who will we show me how?”
The Teacher clocks in at 10 minutes and is their most emphatic release to date. A wild cathartic release of aching guitar echos, seeping instrumentals all building up for a pensive rip-roar of goodbyes, is possibly the idled back-and-forth release Grohl needed to finally accept where his head was at. What follows is Grohl of that acceptance, Rest. What starts out as an acoustic timepiece soon enters into an electronic subwoofer of noise, “Rest, you can rest now,” as it plays homage to not just to those Dave has lost along the way – Virgina, Taylor, Kurt to name a few – but all those in those audiences around the globe who share and understand that same grief.
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