The Musiquarium

Genres: Alternative Rock, Post-Grunge, Hard Rock, Garage Rock Revival

The Musiquarium’s Your Favorite Toy Review Score: 6.5 out of 10

Three years after the pain and loss of But Here We Are (a late career triumph) and a highly publicized marital affair which shattered his illusion as “the nicest guy in rock music”, Dave Grohl & friends are back, but the emotion, sincerity and experimentation of its predecessor are nowhere to be found here. Instead, Your Favorite Toy is a more carefree album that harkens back to the Foo’s early days, sounding far less polished and more raw than most of the band’s input from the past ten years.

Caught in the Echo is a energized, punkish opener, though its chorus sounds a bit too similar to their 2014 track The Feast and the Famine — still, it’s a reliable enough Foo rocker. Of All People continues with the garage rock sound of Foo Fighters’ early days. Unconditional is somewhat reminiscent of early R.E.M. Child Actor‘s refrain of “turn the cameras off” is a bit too repetitive.

The title track feels like a rawer take on the dance rock sound of a Medicine at Midnight track like Making a Fire and also incorporates backing vocals from one of Grohl’s daughters (though it’s Harper this time instead of Violet). The heavy and metallic lead single, Asking for a Friend, closes off the album and is the closest to this album’s definitive Foo Fighters song.

Considering that Your Favorite Toy is the band’s 12th studio album and is more than 30 years into the band’s career, it’s a fairly safe album, largely absent of the emotional impact or heartfelt songwriting of But Here We Are. It would have been nice to see Dave Grohl address his affair, crafting another inspired album like But Here We Are, this time from remorse and regret, but a raw and concise batch of garage rock is far from the worst thing the Foos have ever done either.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Foo Fighters on Discogs.

Back to the 2026 Album Reviews Guide or the Foo Fighters Album Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard