Review: Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (2011) [RCA] // Grade: B
I have to be frank: I usually must be dragged kicking and screaming into listening to a Foo Fighters album. I don’t necessarily have anything against the band – except that grandiose commercial rock is something I usually never want to hear. When done right (as the Foo Fighters have, across their career), it’s never offensive or unlistenable, but it’s also never the first thing (nor thousandth) my ear craves. It was like this when I was a teen and their debut came out (which I actually grew to really like), and also with its follow-up, The Colour and The Shape (which I eventually grew to enjoy). After that? I don’t know… Pat Smear left, and it sounded like Grohl had tapped that juicy varicose vein of the “Soccer Mom with a ‘tude” demographic a bit too much for me to handle.
I really only gave Wasting Light the time of day because Butch Vig produced it, Krist Novoselic made a few cameos and Pat Smear was back in the band. (I know he doesn’t have much to do with the songwriting, but goddanmit, I just love Pat Smear and fuck you if you don’t.) And you know what? I was pleasantly surprised and really glad I listened. Make no mistake, this is still balls-to-the-wall commercial rock, but it’s so incredibly good at being just that. The Foo Fighters haven’t sounded this good in almost 15 years (“All My Life” being the exception) and this album really has zero filler.
Songs like “Rope,” “Dear Rosemary,” “Arlandria,” and “Miss the Misery” swagger out of your speakers like they know they’ll be those “love to hate/hate to love” commercial rock staples for decades to come. While “White Limo” could have fit just as naturally on 1996′s debut as it does here. This is an album built on every great trick Grohl has mastered along the way to dominating mainstream rock: thick riffs, catchy melodies and simple yet poignant lyrics. These tricks create hard-to-resist anthems, scaled back from pop inclinations towards straight-forward rock. Wasting Light sticks with the formulas that worked well on some of the Foo Fighters previous best songs (“Alone + Easy Target,” “Everlong” and “All My Life”). Butch Vig really did Grohl some good here, walking in and adding some snarl back to the layers of shellac he’d been amassing on his way to becoming Bob Segar. Sure things get a lil’ cheesy with, say, “These Days” and “I Should have Known,” but goddamn if these track still aren’t sing-a-longs in their own right. But that has always been a strong suit of Grohl’s.
In a time when we’re already seeing some really good 90s revival bands (Yuck, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, Silversun Pickups) it’s refreshing to hear an actual band from 90s still’s got the chops to faithfully transport you back to those sights, sounds and yes good times. Wasting Light may not be reinventing the wheel, but I’ll be damned if most of this record isn’t up there with any of the Foo Fighter’s best work. Yes, yes I know – bold words – but give it a listen and I think you’ll agree. As I said, I was dragged into this album kicking and screaming, and came out tapping my foot and singing along.
