Right before its release in early 2021,
Dave Grohl called
Medicine at Midnight the
Foo Fighters' "Saturday Night party album" -- a self-evaluation that turns out to be pretty accurate. It also functions as an acknowledgment of an open secret within the band's catalog: for all their attributes, the
Foos have rarely been "fun."
Foo Fighters fix that deficit by diving head on into disco and dance, the syncopations and polyrhythms so dominating
Medicine at Midnight that the four-on-the-floor rock & roll ravers almost seem diminished in comparison. Dance-rock isn't necessarily the height of exploration --
the Rolling Stones cut disco the second they could back in the 1970s -- but
Foo Fighters have adhered to rock & roll basics for so long, the shift in rhythms seems nearly as giddy as the group's unexpected celebration of the power of the hook. Big riffs battle with the kind of nagging singalong choruses the band have avoided over the years, a combination that makes
Medicine at Midnight rush by with the intoxication of a good night out. Ballads are still part of the equation -- there's "Waiting on a War," a reflection of a lifetime spent in the shadow of combat that builds to a cathartic crescendo, plus the dreamy "Chasing Bird," which is the closest
Foo Fighters have ever come to soul -- but they provide necessary breathing room on a record that needs a brief respite from the relentless velocity of the rockers. The speed is crucial to the album's appeal, of course:
Medicine at Midnight is a speedy, hooky, and efficient record, every bit the party album
Grohl promised. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine