Or: digesting meat and potatoes.
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[4.00]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: “It started with a spark /and burned into the dark,” is the key lyric here, one that (intentionally or otherwise) brings to mind Kurt Cobain’s suicide note and its closing words before the goodbyes: “it’s better to burn out than to fade away.” There’s some contention as to whether Cobain’s death is a topic that Dave Grohl takes interest in as a songwriter: “My Hero” was oft-rumoured as a tribute to his bandmate but was kinda about hockey players, and while “Friend of a Friend” was about meeting Cobain and Krist Novoselic, it was written years prior to Cobain’s suicide. Going through the loss of a friend and peer is hard enough without dredging it up for the sake of thematic intrigue, so it’s fine and dandy if Grohl wouldn’t want to talk about it. Yet “Something From Nothing” challenges the listener to dredge up any other kind of rags-to-riches narrative from Grohl’s personal life, and truth be told, it’s hard to not think of Cobain. He died twenty years ago and we’re reminded of his presence, from photo exhibitions and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to his recently unearthed mixtape and onwards. “Something From Nothing” lives in his shadow, but by the time it reaches its gnarled section – as gnarled as the politely-mixed Foos can get these days, anyway – it reaches for the light, for life, without denigrating the memory. This song may be about burning into the dark, but it could be about not fading away.
[5]
W.B. Swygart: I’ve rather enjoyed the episodes of Sonic Highways that I’ve seen, as yr Dave and yr other people tell the stories of the American music that made them; unfortunately, at some point the penny drops that there’s only one possible ending, and that’s Dave Grohl’s Yelling Voice. The same’s true here: builds up nicely for a minute or two, but then “You have no choice/You have to choose,” “Looking for a dime BUT I FOUND A KWHOA-DAH,” and the shouting and the yelling and oyyy it ain’t good.
[3]
Micha Cavaseno: When Dave “The First Man” Grohl got his only songwriting credit with Nirvana on the grinding “Scentless Apprentice”, Cobain would adequately review the song as ‘just the ultimate cliche’. That’s coming from a man who re-arranged the chords to “More Than A Feeling” and got rich with it. But this has always populated this walking talking jaw’s work… Cliches. Lyrically, arrangement, vocal, it’s just so trite and always so over-earnest while saying absolutely nothing, but taking itself SO SO SERIOUS. Dave Grohl is one of the most tired cliches in the world, and people have to stop rewarding him for that.
[1]
Anthony Easton: Grohl is the Faustian legend, isn’t he? Makes me wonder if the money is worth the price from going from the last interesting major label rock band to one of the worst rip-offs of ’70s excess.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Awful hard to ask whomever to “bid farewell to yesterday” when the track can’t shake its debts to Bad Company and of all things mid nineties Soundgarden.
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: Glad the pace picked up at the end.
[4]
Brad Shoup: I guess there’s something left to lose after all. This has the baroque feel of prime ’90s Elliott Smith, guitars chiming and yawning, taking ominous steps up the scale. Then, something different: a stoner riff pulled straight off the Mountain. Things end up in arena metal territory, which is certainly pardonable when you’re trying to depict the Chicago Fire. I can’t imagine listening to an entire prog record from Grohl and company, but in suite form it’s pretty invigorating.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: Foo Fighters’ Punishment Rock Epic Anthems have always been with us (cf. “Stacked Actors” or “Low”), or at least it seems like it, and they aren’t getting any better taken as a whole, but the first three minutes of this before all the shouty nonsense sounds like a pretty strong song to my ears. Probably kills at the end of one of their three-hour ROCK SHOWS, though.
[5]