3 Emotional Late-Era Foo Fighters Tracks You Might Have Missed but Need To Hear

Foo Fighters recently completed a week-long residency on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. The band performed two new tracks, “Window” and “Your Favorite Toy”, as well as “This Is A Call” and their 1997 cover of Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”.

For those who may only know the hits, here’s a list of late-era Foo’s tracks you might have missed.

“Rescued”

The odds don’t favor you if you bet against the endurance of a band led by Dave Grohl. But few would have predicted an early 90s demo project would someday become a stadium band after the death of Kurt Cobain and the end of Nirvana. Then, following Taylor Hawkins’s death in 2022, I admit I thought the band might end there. But Foo Fighters returned with the aptly named LP, But Here We Are, featuring Grohl, once again, behind the drum kit. “Rescued”, the album’s opening track sounds as inspired and poignant as anything Grohl’s ever recorded. Think “Everlong” meets “Best Of You”.

“Your Favorite Toy”

Replacing Hawkins was never going to be easy. And after a brief stint with session ace Josh Freese, Foo Fighters finally found their man: longtime Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin. Rubin has both the skill and rock-star personality of Hawkins, fused with Trent Reznor’s relentless precision. This band requires an anchor behind the kit. But one who can verge on unhinged when Grohl lets loose one of those broken-glass screams. The title track of the Foo’s latest is the perfect distillation of these opposites.

“Waiting On A War”

Co-produced with Greg Kurstin, “Waiting On A War” details looming calamity. This is Grohl looking at a grim world through the eyes of his daughter. The anxious track features an acoustic guitar and the slow swell of strings. But there’s hope lurking behind the gloom. “There’s got to be more,” Grohl repeats. Here, Hawkins guides his friend through the hopelessness. By the song’s end, a kinetic surge of drum fills turns up the volume, like Hawkins lifting Grohl out of despair and high enough to see the light. Medicine At Midnight, Foo Fighters’ 10^th studio album, is also Hawkins’s last.

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