Medicine at Midnight is the tenth studio album by Americanrock bandFoo Fighters. It was released throughRoswell andRCA Records on February 5, 2021, after having its release be pushed out of 2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Produced byGreg Kurstin and the band, the album shows a slight shift in the band's style, pairing their usualrock sound with elements ofdance-rock andpop. It is the final Foo Fighters studio album to feature drummerTaylor Hawkins before his death the following year.
Five singles were released for the album: "Shame Shame" in November 2020, "No Son of Mine" on New Year's Day 2021, "Waiting on a War" in January 2021, "Making a Fire" in June 2021, and "Love Dies Young" in November 2021. The album received generally positive reviews from critics.
After releasing their ninth studio album,Concrete and Gold, in 2017, and touring extensively behind it through much of 2018, theFoo Fighters announced they would be taking a break in October 2018, with frontmanDave Grohl stating that although they needed a rest, he already had some initial ideas for the band's next album.[1] The break would last for less than a year, as by August 2019, drummerTaylor Hawkins reported that Grohl had already been demoing material by himself, and that the rest of the members planned to start contributing shortly thereafter.[2] The band collectively started recording for the album in October 2019.[3] The following month, Grohl described the band as being "right in the middle" of the recording process, and that the album was sounding "fucking weird".[4]
The album was recorded in a large, old house from the 1940s inEncino, Los Angeles.[5] Recording sessions proceeded quickly, something Grohl attributed two things – that the material was progressing quickly and that they were recording in an environment where strange things kept happening.[6][5] Grohl recalled:
"I knew the vibes were definitely off, but the sound was fucking on. We would come back to the studio the next day and all of the guitars would be detuned. Or the setting we'd put on the [mixing] board, all of them had gone back to zero. We would open up aPro Tools session and tracks would be missing. There were some tracks that were put on there that we didn't put on there. But just like weird open mic noises. Nobody playing an instrument or anything like that, just an open mic recording a room."[6]
Grohl noted that they captured unexplainable footage on video, but due to anon-disclosure agreement with the house's owner, who was attempting to sell the property, the footage cannot be shown.[7] Contrary to theConcrete and Goldsessions, which frequently ended in nights of large cookouts, drinking, and parties, the sessions were wrapped up as quickly as possible.[6] In February 2020, Grohl confirmed that the album was finished.[8]
Writers described the album's sound asalternative rock,[9]hard rock,[10]pop rock,[11]power pop,[10] anddance-rock.[12] Grohl likened the album's sound toDavid Bowie'sLet's Dance album, with him explaining that it's "not like aEDM,disco, [or] modern dance record" but rather "this really up, fun record" that is "filled with anthemic, huge, sing-along rock songs."[13] Hawkins described the album as being more "pop-oriented" than prior releases, different from their usualpost-grunge sound.[14] He also noted the use of adrum loop on the album, another atypical trait for the band.[14] The song "Cloudspotter" contains aguitar riff that Grohl wrote 25 years earlier in Seattle but was unable to work into a song previously.[15] Grohl stated, "Some of those songs, the best ones happen in 45 minutes. Then there's other songs — there's a riff on the new record I’ve been working on for 25 years. The first time I demoed it was in my basement in Seattle."[16] Grohl stated that the album's overall style was inspired by the Foo Fighters' "love of rock bands that make these upbeat, up-tempo, almost danceable records".[17]
In February 2020, the band announced "The Van Tour 2020", a 25th-anniversary tour where the band would perform in all of the same cities as the band had twenty-five years prior in their first North American tour, only in larger venues.[18][19] While the tour was originally scheduled to run in April and May 2020, theCOVID-19 pandemic forced the band to delay the tour to October and December of the same year.[20] In May 2020, the band announced that they had indefinitely delayed the album, while the band figures out how to promote and sell the album after the pandemic.[21] While the initial delay was due to the pandemic and the band's inability to tour in support of it, Grohl later decided to release it during the pandemic anyhow, upon realizing its ability to be heard and lift people's spirits outweighed their desire to tour in support of it.[22][a] Anticipation remained high for the album;Kerrang! placed the album atop of their "15 Albums Still to Look Forward to in 2020" list.[24]
Promotions picked back up again in November of the same year. The band announced they would perform on the November 7 episode ofSaturday Night Live.[25] Treading up to the performance, they started teasing new music snippets of a song on their social media platforms.[26] On November 7, the band released the first single, "Shame Shame".[27] On January 1, 2021, the band released the second single of the album, "No Son of Mine".[28] On January 14, the band released the third single, "Waiting on a War".[29]
In the United States,Medicine at Midnight debuted at number three on theBillboard 200 album chart which was earned by 70,000 equivalent album units, 64,000 of which were album sales, making it the top-selling album of the week.[30]
Medicine at Midnight received generally positive reviews from music critics. AtMetacritic, which assigns anormalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the release received anaverage score of 75, based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[32]Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic praisedMedicine at Midnight as "a speedy, hooky, and efficient record, every bit the party album Grohl promised."[12]Rolling Stone's Kory Grow described the music as the band's "most upbeat" to date.[37] James McMahon ofNME gave further praise to the music, considering it a welcome addition to the band's catalog. He further named "Love Dies Young" as one of the band's best songs up to that point.[36]
Other reviewers expressed more mixed assessments.The Guardian'sAlexis Petridis found a lack of innovative music compared to its predecessors, stating that the new musical elements are "gentle nods towards an idea, scattered sparingly around an album that otherwise sounds exactly like Foo Fighters." He ultimately deduced the record as "a solid but unspectacular album" but nonetheless successful.[33] Alexandra Pollard ofThe Independent also found the music lacking in innovation, calling it "a perfectly perfunctory addition to a canon of robust rock'n'roll". She felt that the album would satisfy the band's longtime fans and make welcome addition to their concert setlists.[34] More negatively,Pitchfork's Jeremy D. Larson criticizedMedicine at Midnight as "another album of inconsequential music", further noting that it "adds very little to [the band's] extensive catalog of interchangeable power pop and hard-rock sing-alongs".[10]
It was elected byLoudwire as the 31st best rock/metal album of 2021.[38]
In the United States,Medicine at Midnight debuted at number three on theBillboard 200 chart with 70,000 album-equivalent units, which consisted 64,000 pure album copies.[39] In United Kingdom,Medicine at Midnight debuted at number one on the UK Albums chart with 42,500 album-equivalent units sold.[40]
^Grohl said his online drum battle with 10-year-old musicianNandi Bushell was "the deciding factor": "this exchange that she and I were having did nothing but bring happiness and joy to people. I thought, 'That's done entirely remotely, so why can't our music do the same? Why can't we put the record out and hopefully it'll give people that same feeling? Why can't we do that now?' And so we did."[23]
^"Czech Albums – Top 100".ČNS IFPI.Note: On the chart page, select06.Týden 2021 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
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