Nirvana officially split in 1994 following the suicide of frontman and lead singer Kurt Cobain. One of the grunge outfit’s members, Dave Grohl, didn’t waste much time before he took on a new project, forming Foo Fighters that same year. Later in 1994, Grohl would write and record the entirety of the band’s self-titled debut, which was released the following summer.
Foo Fighters quickly became a strong seller, not just on rock rankings, but on the Billboard 200, the chart company’s list of the most-consumed albums and EPs in the United States. In the decades since then, the band has only become more and more popular and the musicians have spent a long time as critical darlings – but something seems to have changed.
Your Favorite Toy, the twelfth studio LP by Foo Fighters, debuts on multiple rankings this week in America, including the Billboard 200. Sadly, while fans of the group are surely thrilled to hear new music from the Grohl-led troupe, Your Favorite Toy misses matching the past several albums by the band. In fact, it stands out as the Grammy-winning troupe’s worst performer in a long, long time.
Your Favorite Toy opens on the Billboard 200 this week at No. 23. For many rock bands – especially in today’s music world, which is dominated by pop singers and hip-hop soloists and largely not groups – that would be a notable starting point. But for Foo Fighters, it’s actually disappointing.
Only Foo Fighters’ Debut Album Also Stalled at No. 23
Looking only at the 12 studio albums Foo Fighters have released and placed on the Billboard 200 since 1995, Your Favorite Toy ties as the act’s lowest-peaking set. Only the group’s debut effort, Foo Fighters, which peaked at No. 23, managed the same showing. The band’s other 10 albums have all spent time within the top 10. Your Favorite Toy becomes the first Foo Fighters release to miss that tier in just over 30 years.
Greatest Hits And Skin And Bones Performed Better
Only a handful of projects by Foo Fighters that have landed on the Billboard 200 have topped out in less impressive positions than where Your Favorite Toy starts. The Essential Foo Fighters peaked at No. 42, while the St. Cecilia EP only ever lifted as high as No. 117. Several other offerings, like the simply-titled Greatest Hits, as well as a live collection known as Skin And Bones, outpaced Your Favorite Toy, peaking at Nos. 11 and 21, respectively.
At the moment, Your Favorite Toy appears on seven Billboard charts, and it performs significantly better on each and every one of them when compared to its launch point on the Billboard 200. Your Favorite Toy is a top 10 success on half a dozen rankings, and it leads the Top Hard Rock Albums tally. Foo Fighters score an eighth No. 1 on that rundown.
Here are all of the No. 1s Foo Fighters have accrued on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart.
- But Here We Are
- Concrete and Gold
- Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
- Greatest Hits
- Medicine at Midnight
- Sonic Highways (Soundtrack)
- Wasting Light
- Your Favorite Toy
Your Favorite Toy Arrives Inside the Top 10 Elsewhere
Your Favorite Toy also opens inside the top 10 on another five Billboard rankings, and coincidentally, it starts in the same position on each and every one of them. The latest by Foo Fighters debuts at No. 3 on the Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums, Top Rock and Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Top Alternative Albums charts simultaneously. On each and every one of those lists, Foo Fighters have claimed at least 10 top 10s – a milestone reached this frame on both the Vinyl and Alternative rosters.
Foo Fighters’ The Colour And The Shape is Still Present
Foo Fighters fill two spaces on just one of those seven charts where Your Favorite Toy debuts this time around. On the Top Hard Rock Albums ranking, The Colour And The Shape is steady at No. 24. In the past, it has climbed as high as No. 16 in the 16 weeks it has spent somewhere on the ranking of the most-consumed hard rock collections in the country.
