Wasting Light

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Critic Score
Based on 37 reviews
2011 Ratings: #364 / 1031
User Score
Based on 942 ratings
2011 Rank: #90
Liked by 160 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
Entertainment Weekly

Light is a muscular rock & roll throwdown, featuring the Foos delivering exactly the kind of catchy, pummeling anthems they're known for, with total disregard for the whims of the masses.

90
musicOMH

Wasting Light sounds like the work of a band with something to prove, rather than the work of one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

90
AllMusic

What really matters is that nearly ten years after Songs for the Deaf, Josh Homme's influence finally rears its head on a Foo Fighters record, Dave Grohl leading his band of merry marauders -- including Pat Smear, who returns to the fold for the first time since 1997's The Colour and the Shape -- through the fiercest album they've ever made.

90
SPIN

It's Grohl's most memorable set of songs since 1997's The Colour and the Shape.

90
Consequence of Sound

Wasting Light has cornered the kind of ideas that make up the best of the band’s catalog in an earnest attempt to go as big as possible, while staying relatively grounded.

90
Alternative Press
Finally, the coolest guy in rock makes a record worthy of his reputation.
82
Billboard
Recorded in the garage of frontman Dave Grohl's home in Encino, Calif., the 11-song set is an explosive, high-octane burst of rock energy from a 16-year-old band that is tightly honed and righteously raw.
81
Beats Per Minute

Given their status, it wouldn't have been a surprise if Wasting Light had been a by-numbers affair for Foo Fighters.

80
Evening Standard
It's catchy, optimistic and thrilling, qualities that have helped to ensure that Foo Fighters have now been at the top for more than 16 years and will continue to be there for years to come.
80
Q Magazine

The defining album of his career, Wasting Light is the sound of Dave Grohl putting his whole life in context.

80
Classic Rock
Most bands struggle to follow a Greatest Hits album. Foo Fighters have followed theirs with a record that sounds like another Greatest Hits album. They’re unstoppable.
80
Record Collector
Closer Walk is a bit of a happy-clappy MOR soft rock anthem but, on the whole, this is a welcome – and overdue – return to form.
80
The Telegraph
Using entirely analogue tape, Vig, together with top mixer Alan Moulder, brings a deliciously lump-free production consistency to the Foos, who have often erred between the indigestible extremes of thrash-metal and acoustic angst.
80
Mojo

Wasted Light finds Foo Fighters at their boldest, their most vivid.

80
Rolling Stone

The album reunites Grohl with producer Butch Vig, who worked on Nirvana's 1991 monster, Nevermind, and brings the same nuanced approach to weight and release here.

80
American Songwriter

Not everything is so different ... and in a good way. The Foo Fighters still adhere to the formula that sells out arenas from London to Japan.

80
PopMatters

Wasting Light is so consistently good that its minor flaws are subsumed by the sense of goodwill and energy it generates.

80
NME
Sounds like his band are having too much fun.
78
Coke Machine Glow
Wasting Light is as good as mainstream arena rock gets now, twenty years after the fact.
75
A.V. Club

If nothing else, Wasting Light is Foo Fighters' first generally good record in six years, solid from top to bottom without the filler that marred the band's early records.

70
Sputnikmusic

Wasting Light isn't a masterpiece, nor does it see Grohl really reinventing the wheel as far as the band's sound goes, but it's clearly painted from a broader pallette of colours and it's clearly their first consistently good set of songs.

70
Clash

Even after several listens there’s little here to really strike a chord with the long-standing Foos fan. That’s not to say it’s poor – it’s far from that.

70
Gigwise
To their credit – and their detriment – the west coast rockers have no contemporaries to compare with – they just just sound like the Foo Fighters.
70
No Ripcord

Catchy choruses remain, arpeggios hardly make an appearance in favor of volatile hooks, and quiet-loud dynamics are still the norm.

64
Pitchfork

While Wasting Light features a host of worthy set-openers, few prove to be as sticky or memorable as any number of their previous singles.

60
NOW Magazine
It sounds like fun was had in Dave Grohl's garage, but this good album could've been great had they spent more time songwriting prior to plugging in and cranking up.
60
Uncut
These are good songs, but they're so boldly signposted, you can see them miles away.
60
The Needle Drop

Wasting Light is easily one of Foo Fighters' most consistent effort in their past several albums, but it's not resonating with me like I wanted it to. Chalk it up to the album just not being my style, I suppose.

60
Kerrang!
This is a largely unimpressive album.
60
The Guardian

The occasional ghastly clunker such as Miss the Misery apart, the songs do their job ruthlessly and brutally. But there's a welcome lighter touch on I Should Have Known, Grohl's touching address to Cobain (featuring Nirvana's Krist Novoselic on bass and accordion), and Walk, perhaps the most satisfying Foo rocker since Learn to Fly.

60
Slant Magazine

Wasting Light appears to be just another good, if forgettable, entry in the Foo Fighters catalogue.

60
The Skinny
At their 80s commercial peak, critics said The Clash were a garage band playing stadiums; the Foo Fighters are the opposite – a stadium band, slumming it in the garage like when they were kids, but not quite reconnecting in the way they probably hoped.
50
Drowned in Sound

Wasting Light is so straightforward and template driven.

40
The Independent
The three-year gap between albums will ensure this tops next week's album chart, but it's a drab, unrewarding experience.
40
The Observer

Much of Wasting Light rocks just fine, but takes precisely no risks with the Foos' commercially peaking, but artistically diminishing, tattooed chug-pop.

barchamb13
82

The last good Foo Fighters album?

PipePanic
79

One of Foo Fighters finest albums, bringing in the over-the-top rock and roll swagger of yesteryear, to the polish, grit and fun of more modern rock staples, creating a fun as hell and refreshingly creative album from one of rocks loudest voices (Both literally and figuratively).

Favorite Jams: White Limo, These Days, I Should Have Known

Lest Favorite: A Matter Of Time

SnowyFighter
83

You aren't wasting my time with this one

YESS FINALLY. It's been four mediocre albums since The Colour and The Shape, and not only is this album better than those four albums, but it's also my favorite Foo Fighters album. Everything that was missing from their work before this was solved with this album. The insanely punchy production, the catchy hooks and great songwriting, and the overall passion that is thrown into this project. Dave Grohl sounds so much more alive. Go listen to In Your ... read more

tompa
88

Really big and dramatic, but still probably the best late-era foo fighters album until BHWA

AnotherWhiteMan
85

White man approved.

SLT
87

This is one of their best albums. Everything sounds so good, and, surprisingly, a band can stay consistent and good after all these years. Very exciting!

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Track List

1Bridge Burning
4:45
92
2Rope
4:18
92
3Dear Rosemary
4:25
87
4White Limo
3:22
89
5Arlandria
4:27
87
6These Days
4:57
89
7Back & Forth
3:51
82
8A Matter of Time
4:35
83
9Miss the Misery
4:33
82
10I Should Have Known
4:15
84
11Walk
4:17
94
Total Length: 47 minutes
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