Red Light Fever

iTunes Review

Where Foo Fighters’ drummer-turned-tunesmith Taylor Hawkins' first album was cut with some friends on home recording equipment, Red Light Fever was tracked at Studio 606 and boasts such rock luminaries as Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen fame, as well as the Cars’ Elliot Easton and, of course, Dave Grohl. So it should be no surprise that “Not Bad Luck” opens like a big bombastic Queen reunion, replete with May and Taylor’s stacked falsettos — those operatic inflections that made “Bohemian Rhapsody” both hilarious and epically monumental. Modern rock noticeably seeps into the classic mix on the following “Your Shoes” as Grohl’s guitar goes head-to-head with May’s iconic tone while the song pulses on a line dividing ‘70s glam rock and contemporary power pop — speaking of which, the album’s standout “Way Down” plays with the barbed hooks of bygone recordings by the Records and Cheap Trick. The huge and in-your-face production keeps it from sounding like a complete throwback, while the dueling guitarmonies and glittery vocals give the tune enough retro gloss to go back in time.