★★☆☆☆

This Friday, Foo Fighters released their 12th studio album, Your Favorite Toy. Spanning a mere ten songs and 36 minutes, Your Favorite Toy is a much more approachable listen compared to the band’s other works, which are often released as double albums.

“Caught In The Echo” demands the listener’s attention from the first second. Dave Grohl’s screams over dueling guitars give the album a familiar Foo Fighters feel. Lyrically, however, the song is lacking. Grohl’s songwriting woes prevent this track from being elevated beyond a typical grunge jam.

Next is “Of All People,” where Grohl sings of a drug dealer he runs into after 30 years. “How can you live happily ever after?” he asks, knowing this person is responsible for providing the drugs that killed many of Grohl’s friends. His vengeance continues as he shouts, “Of all people, you survived.”

The lackadaisical lyrics return on “Window,” and the repetitiveness is made more mundane by a boring backing track. The song lacks the raw emotion of grunge, and this proves to be a theme that plagues Your Favorite Toy.

The album’s title track follows. “Your Favorite Toy” relies on a trite “na-na-na” trope, reducing the song to a juvenile punk grunge hodge-podge.

Your Favorite Toy’s best moment is “If You Only Knew,” albeit sounding like a But Here We Are throwaway. The song has a grooving chorus, however, with some great drum-fills from ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin.

“Spit Shine” keeps the instrumentally robust sections going. It feels less like a produced track and more like a jam session between guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett going back and forth, with Rubin again driving the track forward.

Unfortunately, Grohl steals the show (in the worst way possible) with some clumsy lyrics and poppy chorus work. 

“Pull yourself together, Mr. Man,” Grohl sings.

The successive track, “Unconditional,” injects some lyrical life into Your Favorite Toy. Grohl laments past mistakes, reflects on unconditional love, and appears to offer an apology to his wife of 23 years, Jordyn Blum, following his 2024 scandal in which he admitted on Reddit to fathering a child outside their marriage. 

The substantive lyrics feel somewhat refreshing. The track, however, is marred by Oliver Roman’s flat production, which afflicts much of the album.

Your Favorite Toy takes another interesting turn on “Child Actor.” Grohl uses the metaphor of a child actor to ruminate on his early fame and inauthentic experience as the informally dubbed “nicest guy in rock.” Grohl has since distanced himself from such claims, which this song acknowledges.

The emotion and lyrical vulnerability are a welcome change and work well with the track’s softer instrumental.

“Turn the cameras off,” Grohl sings.

Your Favorite Toy’s penultimate track is “Amen, Cavemen.” What starts as another great jam from Smear and Shiflett slowly morphs into a stereotypical grunge anthem. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but given the album’s repetitive nature, it feels a bit tired.

“Asking For A Friend” rounds out Your Favorite Toy, and, unfortunately, it’s a mediocre end to a mediocre album. The mix is more dynamic, and the guitars pack a harder punch, but Grohl’s lyrics disappoint again.

Sonically, Your Favorite Toy is undeniably a return to Foo Fighters’ older work, leaning back into the raw grunge energy and guitar-driven urgency that defined much of their early catalog. 

However, for a band capable of marrying catharsis with explosive rock anthems, Your Favorite Toy rarely reaches either, landing instead as a competent—but ultimately forgettable—release from a group whose best work set a much higher standard.