Maps of Music

Your Favorite Toy (2026)

Where the lyrics of Your Favorite Toy take you, and where it was really made.

The title track and album were first called For Good, but Grohl changed the name after a film with the same title was announced.

Key places

Recorded at Dave Grohl's home studio (2026)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album was recorded at Dave Grohl's home studio in Los Angeles. The point sits at the city centre, so the exact building is not confirmed. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Your Favorite Toy: twelfth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters
• Released 24 April 2026 on Roswell Records and RCA Records
• Produced by the band and engineer Oliver Roman
• First Foo Fighters studio album to feature drummer Ilan Rubin
• Follows But Here We Are (2023)
• First album since Sonic Highways (2014) not produced by Greg Kurstin
• Announced 19 February 2026 alongside its title track

Background

• Dave Grohl described the title track as the song that set the overall direction and tone of the record after an extended period of experimentation
• During 2024 and 2025 the band worked on new material and shaped a set of louder, more energetic songs after the title track was created
• Grohl demoed over fifty songs; initial influences included Massive Attack, Pink Floyd and Bad Brains, among others
• Predecessor But Here We Are was made after the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, with Grohl playing the drum parts himself
• The album and title track were originally titled For Good, but Grohl changed the name after the announcement of the film Wicked: For Good to avoid similarities

Recording

• Recorded at Dave Grohl's home studio, with further recording at the band's Studio 606 facility in Los Angeles
• Grohl and Rubin recorded the rhythm tracks live without a click track, and the other members overdubbed their parts afterwards
• Early reports describe a return to a high-energy rock sound with uptempo songs that continue the band's melodic alternative rock style

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Seattle in 1994 as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
• Grohl recorded the debut album mostly alone in six days after Nirvana disbanded.
• Recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate, and guitarist Pat Smear.
• The band made its first public performance in February 1995, five months before the debut album's release.

Members

• Current members: Dave Grohl (vocals, guitar), Nate Mendel (bass), Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett (guitars), Rami Jaffee (keyboards), Ilan Rubin (drums).
• Taylor Hawkins died in March 2022; Josh Freese served as drummer from 2023 to 2025 and Rubin from 2025 onward.

Career

• Released twelve studio albums, the twelfth, Your Favorite Toy, in April 2026.
• Won 15 Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album five times.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, their first year of eligibility.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: generally favorable reviews, weighted average score of 74 out of 100 from 21 critic scores
• Pitchfork: says Dave Grohl faces the backlash with the leanest, meanest Foo Fighters album in 30 years
• Pitchfork: describes the album as fueled by uncaged-animal energy, with Grohl screaming himself hoarse in a position he held 30-odd years ago
• Rolling Stone: calls the band's 12th album some of the most powerful music it has made
• Classic Rock: finds a real sense of rejuvenation and rebirth on the record
• NME: compares it to the early albums and says a few more tracks of that depth would make it the most vital Foo Fighters record since The Colour and the Shape (1997)
• The A.V. Club: says the music is never offensively bad, but far from convincingly inspired
• PopMatters: criticizes the words on Amen, Caveman as badly-expressed babble more becoming of an adolescent than a Grammy-winning artist
• Some reviewers were not as impressed, while the wider reception was generally favorable

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• During the release week, on 29 April, the band announced two secret club shows in the New York City area
• The shows were at Irving Plaza on 30 April and Starland Ballroom on 2 May, with capacities of 1,200 and 2,500 people
• Grohl and Rubin recorded the rhythm tracks live with no click track, which the other members then overdubbed
• The band's website was updated on 12 February with several longer snippets of the album
• Several short extracts of tracks were released in early February 2026 to the band's social media pages as teasers

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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