Foo Fighters
Your Favorite Toy
ROSWELL/RCA

The Foo Fighters have had a tumultuous five years. Dave Grohl lost his mother in 2022, with the band’s drummer Taylor Hawkins suddenly passing earlier in the year. On top of that, the band fired their replacement drummer, Josh Freese—much to Freese’s surprise—earlier this year after a period when Grohl’s name graced tabloid headlines following the reveal of his fathering a daughter outside of his 22-year marriage. Needless to say, the 2020s have been a lot for the band so far.

On Your Favorite Toy, the Foos’ 12th studio album, the memories of punk and alternative rock get rewired by a worn-down band locked into middle-aged musings and looking for a liftoff. After the scorched-earth rock on 2023’s But Here We Are, the band has opted for a pivot toward the playful end of the rock and roll spectrum. The title track, for example, kicks off with a jagged post-punk swagger that feels more Pink Flag than Colour and the Shape. Grohl’s vocals are still as rangy as ever, but he’s channeling years of personal experience now as he tosses out the album’s MO with a rasp: “Candy and dopamine, so sweet it’s gonna give me the shivers.” The track vibrates with a nervous and chaotic energy that continues throughout the record.

Co-produced with Oliver Roman, the album revels in a punchy punk and ’70s power-pop mix. “Of All People” is a quiet masterclass in this simple philosophy as Chris Shiflett’s shimmering, Telecaster-driven leads jump off the record. For his part, Grohl is moving away from the sad-dad lyrics and back toward acceptance and safe observationalism. There’s a sense of rekindling a love with the mundane rock stereotypes and trimming as much fat off each song as possible, as “Caught in the Echo,” “Spit Shine,” and “Asking for a Friend” keep things uptempo and crunchy. It’s a rare occurrence in 2026 when the band feels this tight.

Your Favorite Toy isn’t a total reinvention, but it is a vital recalibration after some sagging years for the veteran unit. It’s the Foo Fighters’ shortest album to date, too. Grohl and team focus on the objects in life that keep us grounded when times are just plain weird. In a world that feels increasingly hostile, the Foo Fighters remain our most ardent defenders of unadulterated rock music. They’ve stopped trying to outrun their more storied past efforts and continue to play with the studio toys again as a band. It turns out they still know how to work them.

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DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX