For any band to follow up one of their finest albums especially after a four year gap can be daunting, especially when that album was the sensational and 2 x platinum selling Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace.

With the bands seventh studio album Wasting Light, Foo Fighters have done that…just. The album has a wonderful urban feel to it and should come as no surprise to the band’s massive following and multitude of fans that the album was originally recorded in Dave Grohl‘s garage. Other bands have tried this effect of taking the band feel and giving it a new environment and in a lot of times it doesn’t give the band the sound or the credit they deserve for the experiment, in this case however, the deconstructive result gives the band an unseen quality that many would have missed over the last fifteen years.

Although the band have been pigeon holed by critics and fans of Nirvana alike, they do seem to do things their own way and with the re-emergence of Pat Smear to the group dynamic they have once more pulled the mother of all tricks out of the hat. Pat Smear is a welcome sight to a band that contains some of the best musical talent available to any group and that includes the man who just about has the hardest job in Foo Fighters, drummer Taylor Hawkins, who keeps the rhythm section as its non stop beating heart going.

There will be those out there that will complain that the band has taken a backward step by going back to their original concept but Dave Grohl has managed to prove once more that he is the master of surprise and originality and with tracks as fresh as Arlandria, the impressive Dear Rosemary and the sentimental feel of I Should Have Known confirms his place as one of the great showmen and musicians of his time.

Wasting Light is a compelling addition to the Foo Fighters catalogue and will be enjoyed by fans of the genre.

Ian D. Hall