While it definitely waned in the second half of 2021, this
is still my favourite Foo Fighters record for a decade. It’s certainly
their most adventurous for a long time (ever?), dabbling in drum loops, backing
singer harmonies and uncharacteristic echoes of Prince and ‘Let’s Dance’
era Bowie. After their last album – the perfectly enjoyable but extremely
safe Concrete & Gold – the risks taken this time make Medicine at
Midnight feel fresh throughout. It’s all the better for it, even if not everything
tried works (for example, ‘Waiting on a War’ is a dull soft rock misstep,
compounded by it being one of the two lead singles). For the most part, though,
this is great fun. ‘Shame Shame’ is weirder than anything they’ve done before
and really digs in deep, whereas funky monkey ‘Cloudspotter’ (why not
cowbells?) is a delight: Queens of the Stone Age meets Scissor
Sisters. Another highlight is the groove-chorus of ‘Holding the Poison’. I
may have got overly excited when this was released, just because I was so
delighted that it confounded my expectations. With a little distance, it’s
still a long way off their 90s masterworks. But we’ve had nothing this good
from Dave and the boys since Wasting Light in 2011, and – for all its
quality – that record wasn’t anywhere near as off-piste as this one is. There’s
life in the old dogs yet.