New Foo Fighters Album - Wasting Light

Managed to have a cheeky listen to the new Foo Fighters album today and after hearing that former Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear has returned to the band and that Grohl decided reunite with Butch Vig (producer of Nirvana's Nevermind) to produce the record was expecting it to be a slight improvement from the last album and more of a return to Colour and The Shape and There's Nothing Left To Lose years. As solid as this album is I was slightly disappointed with it although it will still be one of the btter rock albums of 211. What I loved about the Foo Fighters in there first three albums was the mixture of melodies with heavy riffs using the very affective quiet verses loud chorus method with Grohl often going away from the melody to scream. This album is basically a follow on to the previous album which isnt all bad as there are some excellent melodies and neat over laying guitar playing but dont expect crunching riffs and headbanging as the Foo Fighters have certainly matured musically over the 16 years they have been together moving away from the Nirvana grunge type to a more broad rock sound that will appeal to a wider audience and be more suited to stadium/arena gigs than the dark smelly and sweat pits of small club venues. A perfect example of the musical change is the song A Matter Of Time where the best riff on the album thunders out and when you expect the song to kick on with the heavy riff it stops completely before returning to the same old two chord palm mutted verse. There is a nice touch on the song I should Have Known where former Nirvana bassist Kris Novoselic plays bass where Grohl has said in recent interviews brought back fond memories of Nirvana with Grohl, Smear, Butch Vig and Novoselic working together for the first time since Nirvana ended in 1994.

Stand out songs: White Limo, Miss The Misery, Bridge Burning.
Rating: 3/5
Released April 11th.