Foo Fighters’ “Medicine at Midnight” Lyrics Meaning

As noted in the trivia section, the overall Medicine at Midnight project was primarily intended to be an album featuring dance music. This particular title track of the overall exercise even features a reference to “the dance floor”. But the lyrics of the songs contained within the album aren’t necessarily optimistic. In fact the singer’s depression is a permeating theme throughout the entirety of the project.

And here we are once again treated to a song where the vocalist is displaying an irrevocable sense of pessimism. He has reached a point in life akin to an emotional dead end, afflicted by a type of depression which he feels cannot be cured.

Now the lyrics of this song are even more metaphorically-obscure the other allegory-imbued tracks on Medicine at Midnight.  So perhaps we’re going a bit out on a limb in terms of extracting its meaning. But all things considered, what “Medicine at Midnight” ultimately reads like is one of those types of track in which the singer is touting dance (and by extension music) as a remedy to his personal blues.

Yes, he may be convinced that, in the long run, his depression is insurmountable. But it is also arguable that he finds some type of temporary relief via the dance floor. And based on that understanding, the titular “medicine at midnight” would basically be a metaphor for hitting the club or perhaps even dancing solo in the deep hours of the night. And again he would be doing so, fundamentally, as a form of stress reduction.

Recording and Release of “Medicine at Midnight”

This is the title track for what is a momentous event in the history of the Foo Fighters – their 10^th studio album. The band traces its professional origins back to the year 1994. And this particular project was released, via records labels RCA and Roswell, on 5 February 2021.

The crew recorded “Medicine at Midnight” in a part of Los Angeles known as Encino. They finished recording the project expeditiously, but the experience in and of itself was filled with unusual mishaps. In fact based on the way Dave Grohl explained the situation, one would think that he believed there were ghosts messing with the band’s equipment in that particular setting.

This album is recognized as being more upbeat audio-wise than the usual Foo Fighters’ fare. Indeed according to Dave Grohl, when he and Greg Kurstin conceptualized the project they had one primary goal. And said goal was to “make some rhythms and some grooves that people are going to bounce around to”.

Writing Credits

As with the other tracks on the album, “Medicine at Midnight” was written by the Foo Fighters and produced by Greg Kurstin.  And each member of the band is given individual writing credit. By virtue of this, the complete list of writers is as follows:

• Taylor Hawking
• Nate Mendel
• Pat Smear
• Dave Grohl
• Rami Jaffee
• Christ Shiflett

Was “Medicine at Midnight” issued as a single?

No. The Foo Fighters only released three singles from the album. The first was “Shame Shame“, which came out in November of 2020. “No Son of Mine“, which came out in January 2021, was the album’s second single. The third and final single came in the form of “Waiting on a War“. This single was also released in January of that same year.

The album itself was released on the 5th of February, 2021. But actually this wasn’t the planned release date of the album. The Foo Fighters initially planned releasing the project in 2020. However, it was delayed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.