CD of The Week

Children of rock stars who get into the family business know it can be a rough ride. Ask the children of The Beatles or Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers. Violet Grohl, the eldest daughter of Dave Grohl, is clearly well-versed in her rock history. As a teenager, she began singing onstage with her dad in a variety of situations, including fronting the entire surviving lineup of Nirvana (no pressure there!) and at the tribute concerts to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. She also sang on the 2023 Foos track “Show Me How,” one of the most powerful songs on But Here We Are. So her talent and ambitions were no surprise when she started putting out her own music late in 2025.

Violet’s debut album Be Sweet to Me (not a Japanese Breakfast reference) kicks off with the first song we heard from her, last year’s “THUM.” A dynamic, grungy rocker full of nail-biting anxiety, it’s followed by “595.” With a chorus taken from a sex phone line t-shirt slogan, it’s built around the quiet-loud-quiet template of so many classic ‘90s rock tunes.

“Bug in the Cake” is clearly influenced by Queens of the Stone Age, right down to the driving drums reminiscent of her father’s own work on Songs for the Deaf. One of the catchiest songs on the album, it’s about Violet moving into her late grandmother’s home. “Sweet Virginia, here I come” is a lyric linking multiple generations of Grohls and their songwriting about both the family matriarch and Dave’s home state.

She goes shoegaze on “Last Day I Loved You” and the twinkling bedroom pop of “Mobile Star” shows off her impressive voice, as does last year’s “Applefish.” The pounding “Often Others” with its high-energy drums is the tune most likely to get comparisons to the Foos. Big rocker “Cool Buzz” is a takedown of gender norms in the punk scene, while “Pool of My Dreams” goes the other way, as it evokes drifting and floating away.

While Violet collaborated with a handful of Los Angeles studio musicians and industry veterans on Be Sweet to Me, there is one notable name credited here. Album closer “Plastic Couch” features drumming from Shane Hawkins, Taylor’s son, which is a wonderful way to link the children of the Foos, now making their own music on their own terms for a new generation.

Everything on Be Sweet to Me sounds great… the production, the guitars, and you can definitely hear Violet’s influences like Veruca Salt, L7, and PJ Harvey in the DNA of these songs. It’s a very promising debut from a young artist with a lot to live up to, but it seems she’s up to the task.