Wheels – Foo Fighters
The Southern Rock Foos are Fighting their way back to radio airplay. They were always considered to be the band that could never be as groundbreaking as Nirvana and was largely underrated because of that. But if you collate all the songs that we’ve loved listening to on radio for the past 10 years or so, from the machine-gun guitar fire of Monkey Wrench, to the power pop of Everlong, to the lighter shade of grunge in Times Like These and All My Life, to the pounding angst in Best of You, you will see that the Foo Fighters have been intrinsic to the generation that their Nirvana past helped mould the grunge-loving, scraggly hair, dirty ripped jeans, kids to smell like teen spirit.
Singer-guitarist and ex-Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl, is back again with bassist Nate Mendel, guitarist Chris Shiflett and drummer Taylor Hawkins, to release Wheels, from their Greatest Hits compilation, which Grohl said in an interview, felt like the band’s obituary. Grohl says he always wanted to do a compilation when the band retired but that at the insistence of the record label and the stipulations of their recording contract, the band were compelled to release their compilation at a time which they think is premature given that they could produce more hits.
The song is one of the two originals on the compilation, the other being Word Forward, and was written by Grohl’s friend, Jimmy, who recently passed away.
The song has a respectable hook and a solid balance of electric guitar and acoustic strumming, with a country-style pace. If you weren’t paying attention you just might get carried away thinking you were listening to the contemporary mainstream country renditions of Keith Urban.