Wasting Light (2011)
Foo Fighters
Album Rating: 4/5
Album Length: Just Right
Album Feel: Yes
The Foo Fighters’ newest album, Wasting Light, takes the new production techniques and acoustic elements explored in the band’s previous two albums, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace and In Your Honor, and applies them to their classic sound. The more aggressive styles of Echoes… and …Honor are perfected in the raw power established in the drum rolls and guitar on the opener “Bridges Burning.” The artistic, softer sides of the albums can be found in the emotional ballad “I Should Have Known,” where singer Dave Grohl talks of his reaction to Kurt Cobain’s death.
The bulk of the songs, like “These Days,” “Arlandria” and “A Matter of Time,” sound like they’re right out of the early 2000’s, and are as Foo Fighters sounding as classics “Times Like These” and “Learn To Fly.” The most interesting song on the album is the hilariously ridiculous track “White Limo.” Grohl screams incomprehensible lyrics about a limo over a furry of distorted power chords and guitar riffs, easily making it the Foo’s heaviest song to date.
Although the album might not be as artistically diverse as Echoes… and doesn’t have songs that stand out as much as “Best of You” or “The Pretender,” Wasting Light is the band’s most complete work: a high octane album with little wasted space and zero downtime. Whether it’s the soothing guitar rift in “Walk,” or the bizarre syncopations found on the lead single “Rope,” each track has its own redeeming qualities, making it an easy listen from start to finish and a highly entertaining album overall.
- Key Tracks: “Bridges Burning”, “Walk”, “Rope”
- Worst Tracks: “Miss the Misery”
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