Your Favorite Toy-Foo Fighters Album Review:

Foo Fighters is back with their twelfth studio album “Your Favorite Toy” their first in three years (But Here we are). Their first with a new drummer named Ilan Rubin as the last album Dave Grohl did the drumming himself. Grohl himself said “The track title song sets the overall direction and tone of the record following an extended period of experimentation”. During 2024 and 2025 the band worked on new material, eventually shaping a set of louder, more energetic songs after the creation of the title track and this is the shortest length of any album they have made.

Grohl and company can keep making music and we all would keep listening to it. The real issue is do they need to keep making music? They are at a point in their career where they do not make trash or bad music but not every new song or album will be as good as their past releases. This album isn’t great nor is it complete trash.

There are two really bad songs in “Your Favorite Toy” the track title and “Spit Shine”. They both do not sound like their style as there is a lot of screaming grunge style. The average songs are “Of All People”, “Amen Cavemen” and “Caught in the Echo” the first track. All three do rock out but have elements that make you dislike the tracks like screaming or something.

The good tracks are “Window”, “If You Only Knew”, “Unconditional”, “Child Actor" and “Asking for a Friend”. All are good emotional songs with a softer tone but can still rock out. “Window” seems a little sad with how a window washer views the world through his window. It seems like “Asking for a Friend” and “If You Only Knew” are songs about a friend he has lost like Taylor Hawkins, which is a good thing to know he has not stopped thinking about his friend that he and the world had lost tragically. While “Child Actor” can be about being the limelight since he was young and maybe he didn’t want to be in the public eye his whole life.

In the end fans of the Foo Fighters are not going to hate this album or any other more recent release. They are just going to take the good from this album and add it to the great discography/songbook of music they like from them. This will not be theirs, mine or anyone’s favorite toy but will just be another addition to their history of making good music. It is good they can still make music even after all the tragedy this group has been through.

The Romantic-Bruno Mars Album Review:

 

Bruno Mars is back with this fourth solo album (his fifth overall) with “The Romantic” his first in a decade in “24K”. He is one of the most accomplished and talented singer-songwriters musicians in the industry who is always collaborating with others like Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, and the last album he worked on under the title Silk Sonic with Anderson Paak. The album peaked atop the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums US charts while also reaching number one in Canada. It is rare to listen to an album and not want to skip songs as it is a nice ride from the start to the end during the listening experience. It is the type of album that makes you smile or enjoy the experience because so many tracks are upbeat, funky, and groovy and make you want to dance or tap your feet to the beat. It does really show off his vocal strengths too.

            This upbeat R&B, pop-rock album is exactly what his fans have asked of him for years to come out with because it sounds so much like his older albums. “Cha, Cha, Cha” and the final track “Dance with me” are definitely dance songs. The former is an upbeat song and the latter is  definitely a slow song to dance to as he is talking about falling in love again. Tracks “Risk it all”, “I just might” and “G-d was showing off” all have that same upbeat-funky-groovy feel of R&B or Latin music. They have the feel of his older work and make you want to get up to dance; the first track does have a nice acoustic-quieter tone to start. The song “Why you want to fight”,  is when the album starts to kick it up a notch some cool guitar riffs and he sounds like a lounge or do-wop singer singing the blues in a way. While “On my soul” also has some good guitar riffs, is fast paced, with some guitar solos and some more ‘oofm’ to it. “Something serious” could be considered a song to dance to but he is definitely serious in the tone of the lyrics in the song. While the remaining song “Nothing left” is the one really serious song even though he is covering love in the other tracks for the most part. You can hear the emotional aspect in his vocals as there is more depth to the song too and it rocks out too.

            Mars has captured the romantic in him with these love songs of R&B, Hip-Hop, Pop-Rock and dance. He has also accomplished putting out music his fans can enjoy as it brings you back to his debut album or the previous ones. Because of his talent he will always be collaborating with other artists on either one track or even a whole album, which is fine. But the fans get kind of lucky that he is always releasing new music no matter if it’s as a solo artist or with others. Just know this man is not done making more music and let’s enjoy the ride that we all have been on since he started writing music for others and has been writing music for himself.