Friday, April 1, 2011

FOO FIGHTERS: "Wasting Light"


Rating: 8/10

Label: RCA/Columbia/Roswell 2011

Review by Alan Holloway

For someone who never liked Nirvana too much, I have always had a surprising soft spot for Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters, a band who have released some amazing singles but, for me, never really made a full on decent album since “The Colour And The Shape” back in 1997. Mind you, they don’t rush things, as “Wasting Light” is only their seventh album in 15 years.

Recorded in, of all places, Dave Grohl’s garage, entirely on analogue tape, with no computers to play with. The result is probably the best album by the band since the aforementioned “The Colour & The Shape”, with the band rocking their little socks off. A good mix of mid and fast paced rockers, the album flows along effortlessly, always sounding like The Foo Fighters, but somehow giving off a feeling that there’s a freshness back in the band, giving the impression of a debut by an exciting young band, not one that formed fifteen years ago.

I have to say, I love some of the heavier tracks, like lead single “Rope” and “Burning Bridges”, but even the ones that keep more in the middle like album closer “Walk” have an energy about them that is has you air drumming and screaming along with Grohl when he gets overexcited. There’s some great rhythm on display throughout, with Taylor Hawkins really banging away on the drums throughout, easily as aggressive and impassioned as Grohl himself can be.

In some ways, “Wasting Light” could very well be dismissed as another Foo Fighters album, but I feel that would be doing it a disservice. This is most definitely an album to keep fans happy, but it’s also one that should tempt back those that have fallen by the wayside over the years, because it has everything that drew you towards the band in the first place. Okay, so there’s no “My Hero” or “Everlong”, but there are plenty of tracks that you might just come to love in the same way.

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