Foo Fighters built But Here We Are as a record about loss, and it plays like one from the first riff to the last guitar note. The band’s tenth studio album runs ten tracks and 48 minutes, and it opens with two songs that hide their grief behind hooks designed for radio play before the record turns fully toward the pain underneath.
Opening With Rescued
The album starts with “Rescued,” a song that sounds like a hit before it lets the weight of its subject matter show through. “Under You” follows the same pattern — big, radio-ready sound masking a darker message underneath.
Hearing Voices Through But Here We Are
“Hearing Voices” is the third track and one of the singles singled out by critics. It carries the record’s grief more openly than the first two cuts, and it earns its place as one of the album’s strongest moments. “But Here We Are” closes out the front half of the record with a title track that states the album’s thesis plainly.
The Middle Stretch
“The Glass” is another standout, a song that reviewers flagged as one of the record’s highlights. “Nothing at All” follows it and rounds out the group of tracks singled out by critics, a song that critics described as a highlight of the album.
“Show Me How” and “Beyond Me” sit together in the middle of the record without earning the same attention as the tracks around them. They hold the album together without adding much to the conversation on their own.
The Long Closer
“The Teacher” runs 10:04, the longest track on the record, and it stretches the album’s ideas further than anything else here. “Rest” closes the album at 5:34, ending things on a quieter note after the long closer before it.
“It came in a flash, it came outta nowhere / It happened so fast, and then it was over”
That line comes from “Rescued,” and it sums up the whole record — a sudden, fast loss followed by the long work of living with what’s left. The record doesn’t try to make the pain smaller, and it doesn’t pretend the music can fix it either.
Verdict
But Here We Are is a somber, grief-driven record that turns pain into big-sounding rock songs. The first two tracks disguise their sorrow behind radio-friendly riffs before confronting it more directly later. The album’s five strongest songs — “Rescued,” “Under You,” “Hearing Voices,” “The Glass,” and “Nothing at All” — carry the record, while the middle stretch holds it together without matching their force.
| Track | Length |
|---|---|
| Rescued | 4:19 |
| Under You | 3:39 |
| Hearing Voices | 3:49 |
| But Here We Are | 4:43 |
| The Glass | 3:50 |
| Nothing at All | 3:28 |
The record is at its best when it stops hiding the grief and lets the music do the talking. The weaker tracks don’t hurt the album so much as they remind listeners which ones matter most.
- Rescued4:19
- Under You3:39
- Hearing Voices3:49
- But Here We Are4:43
- The Glass3:50
- Nothing at All3:28
- Show Me How4:54
- Beyond Me3:54
- The Teacher10:04
- Rest5:34
