Review “Wasting Light - Foo Fighters”
‘THESE ARE MY FAMOUS LAST WORDS’ and with that scream, Wasting Light, the Foo Fighters 7th album explodes into life. Wasting Light has been heralded as the return to the days of “The Colour And The Shape” however by looking back to the bands past, they’ve evolved into something different, and just as good. The album contains none of the acoustic ballads that have been featured on the previous two albums, instead the focus is on the hard, fast and huge sounds that are found en mass throughout the record. The band have created one of the highlights of their career by returning to the hooks and power of the early albums.
The first half of the record alone places it as one of my favourite in the bands back catalogue, Bridge Burning, Rope, Dear Rosemary, White Limo and Arlandria are all excellent pieces of rock and roll. Also of highlight are the closing two songs, the slower paced I Should Have Known with whisper-like vocals regarding former friends and enemies, and album closer Walk that features an astounding bridge with Grohl screaming ”I Never Want To Die”. Every song on the album has a sense of anthem and are certain to be incredible live.
As mentioned before, the album starts with a bang with the aforementioned “Bridge Burning”, a sign of the power and quality of songs to come, before moving onto first single “Rope” with it’s bass focused verses and anthem chorus. Following in this style and slow verse, powerful chorus comes “Dear Rosemary”, which features vocals from Bob Mould (Formerly of 80s hardcore legends Hüsker Dü) before the band turn the distortion up to full on the blistering “White Limo” with Grohl screaming unintelligible lyrics (the only one I can understand is “Limooooooo”) over furious playing from the band. Closing the first half of the record comes “Arlandria”, one of my favourite songs of the year so far due to it’s groove in the guitar playing and Grohl’s excellent vocal performance (especially during the breakdown).
Unfortunately it’s after this point that the album shows one of it’s few weak points, “These Days, Back & Forth, A Matter Of Time and Miss The Misery” all are a bit too similar. The songs are still excellent but they follow almost identical patterns of slow chorus bursting into large chorus. Whilst this occurs earlier in the album as well the sound is fresh enough and differs enough for there to be a definite difference in the songs, “Back and Forth” has it’s infectious chorus, “These Days” seems to be built for being played to an arena full of fans as the sun goes down. That said, all of the songs still sound better then almost anything released this year so far. However it’s in the closing two songs that pushes Wasting Light into album of the year territory. Firstly there’s the haunting ” I Should Have Known” which builds up Grohls regrets and feelings regarding what was happening in regards to his friends/family/bandmates, in particular a few lines do at least refer to the late Kurt Cobain (for the first time in a Foo Fighters song despite some claiming every song refers to him). Before kicking in with a bass breakdown (courtesy of former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic) that is heavier then anything dubstep has to offer. Album closer “Walk” is another stand-out track. With a style that seems similar to fan favourite album “With Nothing Left To Lose”, “Walk” is a beautiful explanation of how Grohl built himself and the band into the rock stalwarts that they are today. The entire song is excellent, but the breakdown that ends with him screaming “I Never Want To Die” pushes the song into one of my favourite from the band.
As a whole, Wasting Light is a tremendous album, moving away from the softer side of the band found on the previous two albums, and going back to the start has allowed the band to move forward in a way most didn’t think was possibly after 16 years together. Despite a weaker second half, the Foo Fighters have made one of the best albums of the year, and possibly one of the best in their career.
9/10
Download: Dear Rosemary, Arlandria, Walk
Andrew Dolan
Notes
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