Wasting Light by Foo Fighters

Wasting Light. (Foo Fighters)

He is not the “drummer from Nirvana”. He is Dave Grohl, lead vocalist and guitarist of Foo Fighters.

Album Rating: **** (4/5)

By now it’s quite safe to say, anyone who compares Foo Fighters to Nirvana has either never heard them or is too busy immortalizing Nirvana to hear them.  Foo Fighter’s latest venture called “Wasting Light” (taken from the song “Miss The Misery”) is their best album yet, and yes it’s better than “The Colour and The Shape”.

Produced by Butch Vig (responsible for Nirvana’s “Nevermind”), this record is a rare combination of great songwriting, melodic, anthemic guitar riffs, loud and explosive vocals. Recorded entirely in his garage, Dave called it their “heaviest album till date” and Boy! Was he right!

Foo Fighters had uploaded a 30 second snippet of “Burning Bridges” weeks before the release with Dave shouting “These are my famous last words” and that was enough to get everyone excited about the new record. This is exactly how “Wasting Light” commences. A catchy riff, exploding drums, Dave ‘growl’ and you know right from the start, You are in for one hell of a ride!

Following next is the first single “Rope” which starts with jangled guitars before crashing into mahogany-rich cymbals. Although it is lower than the usual Fighter’s anthem, it retains some characteristic feel of "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace".  There’s a duet as well with Bob Mould from Husker Du/Sugar in “Dear Rosemary”, (very similar to “Steady as She Goes” by Raconteurs) a song about restrain and restriction in a relationship. Welcome Guilty-Pleasure. Although Bob tries his best to match up with Dave, he just plays a catalyst in belting the choruses and its best kept that way.

Enter, The heaviest Foo Fighters song, ever. In “White Limo”, Dave Grohl’s screaming vocals have finally been allowed to shine through the whole of it. There are verses that are immensely distorted, the guitar is extremely heavy and it’s particularly evident that the band intentionally had it this way to add the “Garage-recording-thrash-metal” feel to it (They had released a “I am so wasted” type video for it too). It does go into overkill after a certain period and the screaming become tiresome, there is no change to it at any point; it is just a constant growl that becomes irritable by the end of the song.

But no need to fret, We have “Arlandria” and “These Days” which is a tough, moody power ballad in the melancholic spirit of 1997's ''Everlong''. One of the best songs on this record, it has rightly timed pauses and raises insecurity amongst hope (“The clocks will stop and time won't mean a thing”). I bet the same.  On “Back And Forth”, a pop frenzy of sorts, it becomes quite reminiscent of the alternative songs in the 90’s and “A Matter of Time” seems likely go into records as ‘another-good-Foos-song’ with no varied perception in songwriting still maintaining enough melody to make it to the record.

As the end of the album draws closer, excellent lyrics and artistically churned riffs becomes more apparent. “Miss The Misery”, which can act as a filler for some is generic and unique in its own way at the same time. But what follows next are the two very sublime songs of the record. “I Should Have Known” (ft. Nirvana’s bassist Krist Novoselic) almost seems a song dedicated to Kurt Cobain and how his absence seems to be looming still (“Didn't hear your warning/Damn my heart gone deaf”) and a pursuing unforgivable guilty rage that sets in for his mind to be consoled of the loss. (“No, I cannot forgive you yet/To leave my heart in debt”).

The final song of this record delivers the best Foo Fighters song yet (yes, better than “The Pretender”). As “Walk” commences, you can almost feel yourself ‘million miles away’ with Chris Shiflett’s ‘Edge-Chiming’ type guitar sounding more ambient than it ever has.  As it builds up, it acts as a source of faith and new beginnings amongst the dark, striving for freedom from the fear caught up in the mind.  Reaching its zenith, the climax ranges from extreme despair (“I'm on my knees, I'm waiting for a sign" ) to a near wish for immortality, Dave passionately screaming “I never wanna die”. This is clearly the best 4 minutes of music to come out this year. And yes, Welcome back Pat Smear to the Foo’s line up. He deserves a huge credit for shaping the mid-section of this song with insanely beautiful guitar playing. 

"Wasting Light" is a serious contender for 'Album of the Year' title and Foo Fighters have just raised the bar quite high for acts like Coldplay, U2 and Arctic Monkeys to beat. Until and unless, all the other artist put forth their absolute best, this one's an instant winner.

Key Songs: Walk, These Days, I Should Have Known.

Listen To The Album:

Wasting Light by Foo Fighters


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