First Listen: Foo Fighters - Rope

Foo Fighters’ imminent return is already looking bright, ‘Rope’ sees the band return to the more urgent stop-start guitar-rock found on ‘There Is Nothing Left To Lose’ and ‘One By One’ and saves only its grandest stadium rock ambitions for the chorus.

The opening few phrases of the song are laden with insistent stabbing guitars and the vocals are more at ease, dare I say it more Josh Homme-esque; all of which makes for some nice variety between the verses and the more traditional Foo Fighters balls-to-the-wall chorus.

The artwork, the website, the recording and the whole air of the record have a much more lo-fi feel than their latest two records and mark hopefully a return to their early days after two arguably over-polished, fairly staid efforts. Dave Grohl and his dependable band-mates are for the first time in years exciting, full of potential and ‘Rope’ even manages to end with you wanting more, not before building an agitated guitar line into a snarling beast of noise.

If you’ve been waiting for the Foos to rekindle the emotion and raw energy of classic, ‘All My Life’, then April’s full LP ‘Wasting Light’ may well, on this evidence, hold what you’re after.

Rope by Foo Fighters