Wasting Light

Product Information

Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear cut this action the ancient punk-rock way, to analog tape in Grohl’s garage, and it shows in the razorback blur of the guitars and the hard-rubber slap of the drums. Since the old equipment did not allow for many mistakes to be corrected in post-production, the band spent three weeks rehearsing the songs, and Vig had to relearn outdated editing techniques. David Fricke, writing for Rolling Stone, commended Grohl's themes and Butch Vig's "nuanced approach to weight and release. After the instrumental backing was ready, Grohl did the vocals either on the control room or the isolation booth. Foo Fighters manage to combine a chorus that is pure pop and catchy as hell with monster guitars and an interesting verse.

I adore `White Limo' (which has an awesome video with Lemmy, check it out on YouTube) and this gets me tapping my feet and bobbing my head within seconds of it starting. These were the iTunes bonus track "Better Off" at number 5, "Bridge Burning" at number 14, "Walk" at number 24, "White Limo" at number 28, "Arlandria" at number 35 and "These Days" at number 39. Grohl's screams haven't registered this dangerously, gleefully shredded in years-- if he was hoping to exorcise some demons, it sounds as though he made that happen. After the guitar and drum track, Mendel would play his basslines, [17] which were practiced enough for them to be recorded perfectly on the first take. Let’s change the subject to someone else,” Dave Grohl suggests in a brief quiet space, between bursts of high-speed riffing, in “A Matter of Time.Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü, one of Grohl's idols, was brought in to do vocals in a song Grohl conceived as a duet with him, "Dear Rosemary". There, despite having never heard any of the yet-to-be-released Foo Fighters songs, young Nirvana fans were showing up early and in numbers.

As evidenced by the opening roar of "Bridge Burning" and "Rope" or metallic uppercuts of "White Limo", the new, three-guitar attack in place provides a wallop that wasn't there before. The rousing I Should Have Known and the gorgeous Arlandria are among the best Grohl has written, while the noisy and messy White Limo could well become an unlikely hit sing-along in the manner of the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. The opening 40 seconds is as good an album opening as you will ever hear and the rest of the song doesn't let up with machine-gun guitar in the verses and a chorus that shows the Foos still have one or two surprises up their sleeves. Vig started doubting it could be done fully analog once the tapes for the first song recorded, "Miss the Misery", started falling apart, but Grohl reassured him "no, Butch, I don't want any computer in this house at all.

Promotion included the documentary Back and Forth and a worldwide concert tour that included performances in fans' garages. 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". The important thing to know about Wasting Light as an album is that the writing itself seems to have received more attention to detail than anything Foo Fighters have produced in the last decade.