Track List
Bridge Burning
Rope
Dear Rosemary
White Limo
Arlandria
These Days
Back & Forth
A Matter Of Time
Miss The Misery
I Should Have Known
Walk
After announcing itself with feedback-drenched guitar, drums
like machine-gun fire and then a phasers-on-kill full-band
cavalcade, æWasting LightÆ starts explosively as Grohl screams,
ôThese are my famous last words!ö All this within the first
minute, even before a chorus the scale of Vesuvius erupts. The
Foo Fighters return with a cigarette-chewing stadium-punk riot
that is by far the most arresting opening weÆve heard from them
in a long time. This. Bodes. Well.
Rope
The single tap-dances in stoppy-starty guitar weirdly reminiscent
of æInfinity LandÆ-era Biffy Clyro before relaxing into a verse
that alternates between Queen-style harmonies and Queens-style
jerks peppered with primal Grohl-howling, promptly freefalling
off a giant cliff of euphoric melody. Like leaping off a cliff,
see. Without a rope.
Dear Rosemary
Only three songs in does æWasting LightÆ settle its pure-pop
groove, with more staircase harmonics and another one of those
cast-iron choruses that tent-poles a dark, ambivalent love song,
just in case we were getting too cosy.
White Limo
This track, trailed online before the release of æRopeÆ is a
gift to the metal ends of the fanbase, revisiting the Big ManÆs
work with Probot. The vocal is as distorted as Alice Glass and
as whiskey-ravaged as Lemmy. It all leaves you kind of trembling.
Arlandria
ThereÆs no getting away from it, the quiet-loud-quiet dynamics
and buzz-saw riffs of æArlandriaÆ put you in mind of nobody so
much as Nirvana at their most melodic. This is no bad thing; with
so many other people channelling Nirvana just now, Grohl has more
right than anybody else, and in a classic Foos twist it channels
a lovely bit of nursery rhyme with its ôShame shame go away/Come
again another dayö interludes.
These Days
A change of pace as Grohl powers down the pistons for a while and
draws on an almost country, hymnal flavour, before blooming into
(yes) yet another gigantic chorus worthy of æThe Color And The
ShapeÆ, all with a good old-fashioned lyric about lost love and
graverobbing: ôEasy for you to say your heart has never been
broken/Your bodyÆs never been stolenö.
Back And Forth
The fun one in which Grohl gives the emoting a rest and gets the
horn, in a simple-yet-effective coitus reference. ôIÆm looking for
some back and forth with you/Are you feeling the same as I do?ö
sings Grohl while inadvertently rubberstamping an entire new genre,
the nursery-rhyme knee-trembler. æBack And ForthÆ proves more than
anything else here that while this is the bandÆs return to primal
rock, the big pop songs are also bigger and poppier than theyÆve
been for years.
A Matter Of Time
This will be a favourite of the more meatheaded ends of the Foos
fanbase only in that itÆs the one thatÆs would probably appeal to
the presenters of Top Gear and only then because itÆs the one youÆd
best describe as ôdriving music.ö But even then it sails along on a
crisp wave of tune that somehow recalls æThis Is A CallÆ. Now isnÆt
that lovely?
Miss The Misery
In which the Foos kick back into mid-pace as they approach the
gleaming horizon, possibly while driving on the giant rockÆnÆroll
train theyÆve borrowed from AC/DCÆs live shows from last year. This,
fact fans, is the one that contains that æWasting LightÆ line from
the album title. It will sound awesome in stadiums.
I Should Have Known
GrohlÆs big climax unfurls amid thunderclaps and more histrionic
emoting in what might be called the recordÆs only concession to the
ballad. Well, every return-to-form should have one. This would sound
perfect as the solo-Grohl interlude before at the encore at the live
shows. Doubly great because it means they can restore æEverlongÆ to
full-band status.
Walk
As a record this ferocious should, its curtain call returns to full
power and displays all shapes and colours of this band, being half
college rock and half heavy metal. ôI never wanna die!ö howls Grohl
as the tension rises before the credits roll. Are we actually going
to say it? Yes we are. We donÆt suspect he ever will. Welcome back,
Mr Grohl!
Verdict
Just as it long ago became a lazy gag to greet a new Gallagher
release with a withering ôwell theyÆve hardly gone dubstep, have they?ö
thereÆs no radical new afrobeat flavour to æWasting LightÆ. What youÆre
always going to get from Foo Fighters is testosterone-fuelled arena
rockÆnÆsoul.
But nevertheless, this is the awesome sound of a band massively
rejuvenated. The songs are bigger, the teeth are sharper, the metal is
denser and perversely, the analogue production makes it sound a hell
of a lot more classy. Truth is you sometimes run out of masculinity
metaphors when describing the Foo Fighters, but spending time
Josh has also rubbed off, so in the ways that the best rock music always
is, it also sounds splendidly girly at times.
So this restores Dave as the everypersonÆs Rock God, but it also recasts
the Foos as more of an actual, collective band than ever. WeÆre just
going to say it. This is the best Foo Fighters album since æThe Color
And The ShapeÆ.