Foo Fighters - WastingLight

Thu 14th Apr, 2011 in Music Reviews

There has been a huge build up to the newest Foo Fighters record Wasting Light; cheap looking videos being dropped unexpectedly, 30 second song teasers, huge shows for television and charity, surprise gigs in tiny venues and a last minute album leak have all built up the hype, and the Foos’ seventh record, touted by the band to be one of their heaviest outings yet, meets the hype halfway.

The album opener, Bridge Burning, starts with biting guitars and Dave Grohl’s signature scream that leads into one of the bands strongest rockers they’ve written. The riffs charge forward and the track crescendos in layered vocals and harmonised guitars. The energy is high and stays there for the next three tracks. First single Rope, already a radio staple, provides another big chorus to the FF songbook, as well as more staccato riffs and a bridge that showcases the proficient chops of drummer Taylor Hawkins and lead guitarist Chris Schiflett.

Dear Rosemary drops the tempo back a little and toes the line at falling into adult contemporary soft rock but is saved by guest vocals from Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü fame. The Foo’s owe a lot of their sound to Bob’s the 1980s band, and Mould’s vocals save the chorus from being another mid-tempo shouted affair and turn it into one of the albums more memorable moments.

What Dear Rosemary lacked in guts, however, is more than made up for by hardcore bealter White Limo. Possibly inspired by the return of grizzled punk and revolving door Foo Fighter guitarist Pat Smear, this is the most aggressive we’ve heard the band since Weenie Beenie and Wattershed from their 1995 debut album and it sounds fantastic. Limo is aided by producer Butch Vig’s knack for taking traditionally lo-fi tracks and giving them a massive mainstream pop mix and it manages to make this turn down memory lane the hugest song on the record.

Unfortunately this is where Wasting Light loses speed and the middle of the record becomes bogged down by plodding rhythms and unfocused ideas. It’s the same problem that has happened every time the group have focused on making a rock-centric record; a few fairly ordinary songs get a boost of distortion but aren’t developed any further. By trying to stay away from the unfocused genre hopping that critics disliked on their last record, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace , they have forgotten that, even at its worst moments, ESPG was at least interesting to listen to.

Wasting Light’s latter half is made up of a beige mix of nagging choruses and direction less bridges found in Back and Forth and A Matter of Time, with These Days being a carbon copy for past singles like Times like These and Resolve. Grohl chews over the same themes of opposing forces and love gone bad that he has for the last couple of albums and, without the intensity of his screaming, the lyrics can sound forced and clichéd. Not all the albums later songs are bad, but while Arlandria and Miss the Misery contain some great riffs and catchy hooks, they are still too close to the middle of the road to save it.

In among the album’s more ordinary moments is a diamond in the rough. The penultimate track I Should Have Known starts out with a riff reminiscent of the Animals and features another blast from Grohl’s past – former Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic – on the accordion and bass. The track is a slow burn that smoulders into a bowel shaking bass line doubled by Novoselic and Foo Fighters bass man Nate Mendel as Grohl screams his mantra “No, I cannot forgive you yet.” It’s not enough to redeem the album, but it reminds you why people put so much stock into this band.

Foo Fighters have made an album that contains some of the most blistering songs of their career but it is ultimately let down by sub-standard rockers that should be stomping when they are trudging.