The Foo Fighters started working back in 2010 on their latest album ‘Wasting Light’. It was recorded onto tape and then backed up digitally where it was processed and mastered. I ‘acquired’ a nice vinyl rip of the album to review as the quality of the audio is superior and drums are punchier.
Bridges Burning starts the album strongly, a fast paced chant of a song. With a chromatic verse riff and kicking chorus, it is a strong start to the album and a great precede to…
The first single from the album ‘Rope’ is easily one of the best songs. Pat Smear pulls a quirky solo, the stop start rhythm and the floating lyrics make it instantly a catchy headbanger.
Dear Rosemary The verses have a reggae rock feel with the guitars doing a question and response chatter on the left speaker to the right. Oddly enough the verses are much better than the chorus.
The Queens of the Stone Age influenced ‘White Limo’ is similar to ‘Six Shooter’ by QOTSA. A muffled shouting vocal is throughout as if from a broken amplifier or walkie talkie. It starts similarly to Bridges Burning with the fast palm muting drum like guitar. Whilst it sounds punk laced, scary, and big, it is quite a lacklustre song which would have more sense at the start of the album. A mediocre song after a few listens, however would be great live.
‘Arlandria’ is a fierce ballad of sorts and the epitome of the Post Grunge movement. Dave’s vocals soar on the chorus and Taylor’s drumming sticks together the verses. Named after the town Dave spawns from, there is a piano/bass delay in the middle that warms up the final verse. Once again however the format is ‘Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Middle 8, Verse, Final Chorus’
‘These Days’ starts with clean guitar and Dave and is the only song apart from ‘Walk’ to have a gentler feel. Dave shouts to the audience ‘It’s easy for you to say…’ with a snarl, it’s one of the songs on the album that feels the band are retelling their history and getting things of their chest. It is imperfect at times, however that’s nice compared to the over processed albums.
‘Back & Forth’ is a raw song that is more reminiscent of past Foo classic songs like ‘Break Out,’ ‘Big Me,’ and ‘Monkey Wrench’; full of tongue and cheek about sex. Nothing says Rock and Roll like innuendo. One of the better songs on the second half of the album.
‘A Matter of Time’ is a simple song that does not really bring anything to the table. ‘Miss the Misery’ begins with a solo phaser guitar doing a sort of blues riff. The song is pleasant enough, however it does lack any substance making the second half of the album considerably weaker.
I Should Have Known is the sombre song and an absolute menace of rawness. It features Nirvana Bassist Krist Novosellic on Bass and accordion.
Final song Walk was also released as a single, however you do question why as I Should Have Known is easily a better choice. It sounds similar to ‘Wheels’ on the Greatest Hits, and just like Wheels it sounds uninspired and a rather underwhelming end to the album. Take this filler track off and we’re talking about a killer album.
Whilst the album has weak moments, the best tracks are Foo Fighter classics are it is the strongest album the Foo’s have done since Colour and Shape. It may fall down at some Rock clichés and does not really push too far in a new direction, the Foo’s are definitely one of the best true Rock Bands out at the moment. The songs are key for raunch rock and a probably a great asset live.
Not genre defying, yet strong riding with some key moments.
7.5/10
- Bridges Burning
- Rope
- Dear Rosemary
- White Limo
- Arlandria
- These Days
- Back and Forth
- A Matter of Time
- Miss the Misery
- I Should Have Known
- Walk