Can you lose what you never had? Urgent artistic inspiration, in the case of Foo Fighters. It may sound specific, but after the talent-filled debut of the Dave Grohl-founded group, seeing how quick the drop into generic rock and roll happened is, while not unprecedented, rather tragic given the promise of the self-titled start. There is Nothing Left to Lose hears the band lose their way just three albums in. They would not recover from this until But Here We Are, a staggering return to a form for a band whose method of producing appears to be listening to the finished songs in a car to make sure its radio play will not diminish over time. That hardly explains the sound of Stacked Actors, an all too quiet piece of work which teases some rock and roll volatility, but manages to make the whole song sound flat. A shame, too, as this is as good as it gets for There is Nothing Left to Lose.
Better to be disappointed than numb, though. There may be some confusing trouble with Stacked Actors but at least the sentiment of the song matches up with the title and is performed with a sincerity Grohl and the band would lose after this release. Breakout has the appeal of all those other big Foo Fighters hits, though. That is what Grohl has always had a knack for, a sound and simplicity which lends itself to a feeling which can only be felt during the encore of a thoroughly enjoyed gig. He has bottled that up and thrown it around the studio on There is Nothing Left to Lose and, despite successfully, somehow, capturing this feeling, he does very little with it. Learn to Fly is another one of those acceptable songs that is hardly going to provoke, but once it ends, you won’t be sorry it stopped. Foo Fighters are experts in that sort of sound.
Even with those shortcomings, There is Nothing Left to Lose remains ahead of the rest in rock and roll because Grohl has an excellent voice. Lyrically, these may not be enough to set your heart on fire, but at the very least they’re enjoyable, thumping pieces of instrumental work. Gimme Stitches has a relatively understandable appeal to it even if it never lands that finishing blow. There are no peaks or troughs for There is Nothing Left to Lose and it makes for an emotionally hollow experience. It’s more annoying to hear those nice chord progressions or fitting instrumental styles amount to little, if anything. Aurora is a fine example of this, a drifty appeal to the track which every other piece of There is Nothing Left to Lose has. It’s a defining trait of rock and roll at the time but that doesn’t mean you should revel in it for as long as Foo Fighters did.
Words have lost their meaning, which means whatever Grohl is writing about is going to make sense to someone. Changing back and mountain scaling on Live-In Skin is just throwing yourself into the wind. A tonal whiplash from the piano-featuring rock to the stripped-back slickness of Next Year is a rough occasion, one of many to be found across There is Nothing Left to Lose. Much of this Foo Fighters record feels more like adaptations of popular styles of the time, pieced together with very little structure or interest in theme. Everyone from Oasis to Chris Cornell is ripped through as Grohl continues trying to mould himself to what an audience wants, rather than delivering an experience worth having. Foo Fighters flip between repetitive lyrical dirge and instrumentally solid but underwhelmed production. It’s a rough ride, but by this point, Foo Fighters could do no wrong for those who had commutes lasting more than an hour each way, the target audience for Grohl.
