“THESE ARE MY FAMOUS LAST WORDS” and with that opening line, ‘Wasting Light’, the Foo Fighters 7th album explodes into life. ‘Wasting Light’ has been heralded as a return to the days of ‘The Colour And The Shape’ however, by looking back at the band’s past, they've evolved into something far different, and just as good. Firstly, the album contains none of the acoustic ballads that have been featured on the previous two albums, instead, the focus is on the hard, fast and huge sounds that are found a lot throughout the record. However, the band have created one of the highlights of their career by returning to the hooks and power of the early albums.
The first half of the record alone places it as one of my favourite in the bands back catalogue, ‘Bridge Burning’, ‘Rope’, ‘Dear Rosemary’, ‘White Limo’ and ‘Arlandria’ are all excellent pieces of rock and roll. Another highlight are the closing two songs; the slower-paced ‘I Should Have Known’ with whisper-like vocals regarding former friends and enemies, and album ‘Walk’ features an astounding bridge with frontman Dave Grohl screaming "I Never Want To Die". Every song on the album has a sense of anthem and is certain to be incredible live.
As mentioned before, the album starts with a bang with the aforementioned ‘Bridge Burning’, a sign of the power and quality of songs to come, before moving onto first single ‘Rope’ with its bass-focused verses and anthem chorus. Following in this style and slow verse, powerful chorus comes ‘Dear Rosemary’, which features vocals from Bob Mould (formerly of 80s hardcore legends Hüsker Dü) before the band turn the distortion up to full on blistering ‘White Limo’ with Grohl screaming unintelligible lyrics over furious playing from the band. Closing the first half of the record comes ‘Arlandria’, one of my favourite songs of the year so far, due to its groove in the guitar playing and Grohl's excellent vocal performance -especially during the breakdown.
Unfortunately, it's after this point that the album begins to show one of its few weak spots, with ‘These Days’, ‘Back & Forth’, ‘A Matter Of Time’ and ‘Miss The Misery’ all sounding a bit too similar. The songs are still excellent, although they follow almost identical patterns of slow chorus bursting into large chorus. Whilst this occurs earlier in the album, the sound is fresh enough and differs enough for there to be a definite difference in the songs. ‘Back and Forth’ has an infectious chorus, whilst ‘These Days’ seems as though it was built for an arena. That said, all of the songs still sound better than almost anything released this year so far.
However the closing two songs that pushes ‘Wasting Light’ into album of the year territory. Firstly, the haunting ‘I Should Have Known’ which builds up Grohl’s regrets and feelings, regarding what was happening to the people around him, with a few lines referring to the late Kurt Cobain, before kicking in with a bass breakdown, (courtesy of former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic) that is heavier than anything dubstep has to offer. Album closer ‘Walk’ is another stand-out track. With a style that seems similar to fan favourite album ‘With Nothing Left To Lose’, ‘Walk’ is indeed a beautiful explanation of how Grohl built himself and the band into the rock stalwarts that they are today. The entire song is excellent, and the breakdown that ends with him screaming “I Never Want To Die" pushes the song into one of my favourites from the band.
As a whole, ‘Wasting Light’ is a tremendous album; moving away from the softer side of the band found on the previous two albums, and going back to the start, which has allowed the band to move forward in a way most didn't think possible after 16 long years together. Despite a weaker second half, the Foo Fighters have made one of the best albums of the year, and possibly one of the best in their career.
9/10
By Andrew Dolan
Top album! My favourite of theirs since The Colour and the Shape.