Wasting Light

Product Information

The first: Eleven tracks of fuzz-box brawn, mosh-pit-hurrah choruses and iron-horse momentum, Wasting Light is the best Foos album since the first two, Grohl’s all-solo 1995 debut, Foo Fighters, and the first full-band blast, 1997’s The Colour and the Shape. Grohl said he felt digital recording was getting out of control: "When I listen to music these days, and I hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine it kinda sucks the life out of music.

There are references to death – and the responsibility to leave things better than when you came in – all over this album. Former Hüsker Dü frontman and fellow 80s punker Bob Mould guests semi-audibly on the Zeppelin-like crunch of "Dear Rosemary" and then of course, there's Novoselic's turn on "I Should Have Known", where the latter's bass sounds as round and bowling ball-heavy as it did on Nirvana's "Sliver". The big, loud, frenetic rock ‘n’ roll so loved by their fans is back, alongside bluesy ballads and memorable lyrics. For Wasting Light, Grohl stated that they would go back to a more raw and heavier sound after "exploring new musical ground" on the previous records, [3] adding that "with the last album we were too concerned with being musical, now it's time for us to be a rock band again".

The album also topped the charts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Rob Parker of NME said that it "sounds phenomenal" on headphones or sound systems and is "both broad and focused enough to appeal to casuals and longhairs alike". Didn’t hear your warning/Damn my heart gone deaf,” Grohl sings as the initial darkness – a solitary guitar and the quiet cutting guilt in his voice, set in inky reverb – slowly blows up to a purging rage: “No, I cannot forgive you yet/To leave my heart in debt. Not long after Nirvana dissolved in April 1994, following Kurt Cobain's suicide, Grohl was offered the opportunity to back Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.After "Rope", four other songs were issued as singles: "Walk", " Arlandria", " These Days", and " Bridge Burning". The producer said that during recording he "had to force my brain to fire different synapses" to remember how to deal with the analog equipment and the lack of a digital display. While many recordings had inserts and some parts rerecorded, [17] the only song that had to be redone from scratch was "I Should Have Known", as Grohl felt Vig was "trying to make this into a radio single" when the singer wanted it "to sound really raw and primal". The frontman said this was helped by the environment – "a lot of retrospection and introspection and nostalgia going back to the way we used to make records" - [17] and working with Vig again, which "made me think a lot about starting over, and rebirth, and making your way through tragedy and coming out the other side. Exclusive Interview: Dave Grohl on Cutting the New Foo Fighters Album's Master Tape to Pieces—and Giving Them Away to the Fans".

Mikael Wood of Spin observed a "back-to-basics aspiration" and dubbed the album "Grohl's most memorable set of songs since 1997's The Colour and the Shape. This doesn't disappoint in the slightest and from the opening riff of `Bridge is Burning' and those thumping drums, you know you are in for a treat.

The tone of the guitars in the verses is superb and highlights the sonic difference that both the analogue recording and Butch Vig's production offers the record. Andrew Perry of The Daily Telegraph viewed it as by far the band's best album and found it "tough but accessible, reliably catchy, yet also surprising at the last. This album was well worth the wait and whilst it may be classed as a lo-fi production, it in no way sounds it and the harder direction the band went in suit's them to a tee.