Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

I’ll admit that when I first heard that Foo Fighters were releasing a new album, I didn’t get particularly excited. It’s not that I don’t like Foo Fighters, they’re great. There’s a reason they’ve kept ahead of the pack in the rock arena. It’s just that I didn’t feel they had anything new to offer. After Dave Grohl was firmly behind the drum kit on Them Crooked Vultures’ superb debut, I felt that was the place he was always meant to be. As a guitarist Dave has never particularly wowed me, but the opposite has always remained true when he’s pounding his kit with a perfect blend of John Bonham and Lars Ulrich which was only reinforced by that album. Alongside fears and speculations that with the reinstatement of Pat Smear as a fully fledged member and asking ex Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic to guest that Dave was trying to recreate Nirvana, this would also be the follow up to their ‘Greatest Hits’ which has proved to be the kiss of death to many a career. Taking all of this into consideration, Dave and crew really needed to make a statement with their returning album.

Wasting Light was recorded with Nevermind producer Butch Vig in Dave’s garage using analogue equipment rather than in-studio, and the record has definitely benefitted from this back to basics approach in the revitalised energy that teems throughout. Whereas Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was the paramount of Foo Fighters’ rock melody writing skills, on Wasting Light the focus is on heavy hitting riffs slung out hard and fast, the formula that made their first two albums so enjoyable. From album opener Bridges Burning which bounces along on machine gun drums and jerky guitar lines, the record grabs you by the hair and screams into your face. Lead single Rope raises the ante with the bar set firmly at “Dramatic”, before laying firmly into the buzz saw riffs and cutting swagger of Dear Rosemary. White Limo sees the band at their heaviest, sounding like a lost Queens of the Stone Age demo, while These Days simmers things down just long enough to lull you into a false sense of security before bringing back the noise with a chorus that wouldn’t go amiss on The Colour and the Shape.

The album peaks with the pensive ballad I Should Have Known, featuring Krist Novoselic providing bass and (rock) accordion, which grows from Dave’s broken vocals into a primal howl with heads rolling left, right and centre. After the bitter refrain “I should have known / But I cannot forgive you yet” the boys go for the home run with Walk. Starting with a simple echoing guitar riff, the song builds exponentially into a sky filling chorus that’s sure to make the encore on set lists. Amid the cataclysmic wall of pounding drums, wailing guitars and tremoring bass, Dave roars the life affirming lyric “I never want to die!” which expresses the very heart of Wasting Light. There’s a cathartic feeling of apocalyptic abandon surging throughout the record; that it could all fall apart at any moment but we’ll go along for the ride anyway.

Raucous, chaotic and firing on all cylinders, this is the sound of a band facing up to their own legacy and rediscovering their garage band mojo. Wasting Light proves to all listeners, including myself, that Foo Fighters still have plenty to offer.


Wasting Light is available to stream in full from the Foo Fighters website and is available in record stores now.

JM