Your Favorite Toy

Did You Know?

• Early reports describe the album as a return to a high-energy rock sound with uptempo songs reminiscent of the band's earlier work.
• The album continues the melodic alternative rock style established across the band's discography.

Background

Your Favorite Toy is the first Foo Fighters album since 2014's Sonic Highways not to be co-produced by Greg Kurstin. Instead, the band worked with engineer Oliver Roman, recording at Dave Grohl's home studio and their own Studio 606 in Los Angeles. It follows 2023's But Here We Are, which was made after drummer Taylor Hawkins died and saw Grohl handling drum duties himself. During 2024 and 2025, the group developed new material, and after the title track was created, they shaped a set of louder, more energetic songs. Grohl had demoed more than fifty tracks, citing early influences like Massive Attack, Pink Floyd, and Bad Brains. He recalled lying in bed listening to the demos and noticing ten in a row that reminded him of the music he grew up with, which gave him the album's energy. This is the first Foo Fighters studio record to feature drummer Ilan Rubin, who joined after touring lineup changes following Hawkins' death. Grohl and Rubin recorded the rhythm tracks live without a click track, and the other band members later overdubbed their parts. At 36 minutes and 26 seconds, it is the Foo Fighters' shortest album, beating Medicine at Midnight by nine seconds. The album and its title track were initially called For Good, after the chorus lyric "someone threw away your favorite toy for good," but Grohl changed the name to avoid confusion with the movie Wicked: For Good.

Release and promotion

In early February 2026, the band teased the album by posting short track snippets on social media. Longer previews appeared on their website by February 12. The title track debuted on February 19, 2026. A world tour was announced for mid-2026. On April 29, during the album's release week, the band revealed two secret club shows in the New York City area: one at Irving Plaza on April 30 and another at Starland Ballroom on May 2.

Reception

Pitchfork described the album as 'the leanest, meanest Foo Fighters album in 30 years,' noting an uncaged-animal energy and speaker-crackling distortion. Rolling Stone called it 'some of the most powerful music it's made.' Classic Rock wrote of 'a real sense of rejuvenation and rebirth.' NME compared it to the band's early work, stating it was a few tracks away from being the most vital Foo Fighters record since 1997's The Colour and the Shape. Some reviewers were less impressed: The A.V. Club criticized the music as 'never offensively bad, but far from convincingly inspired.' PopMatters singled out the song 'Amen, Caveman' as containing 'badly-expressed babble more becoming of an adolescent rather than a Grammy-winning artist.'