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Foo Fighters: Wasting Light

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: RCA Records
Released: 2011.04.12
Time:
 47:54
Category: Alternative Rock
Producer(s): Butch Vig
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.foofighters.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2016
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Bridge Burning (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:46
[2] Rope (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:19
[3] Dear Rosemary (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:26
[4] White Limo (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 3:22
[5] Arlandria (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:28
[6] These Days (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:58
[7] Back & Forth (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 3:52
[8] A Matter of Time (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:36
[9] Miss the Misery (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:33
[10] I Should Have Known (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:15
[11] Walk (D.Grohl/T.Hawkins/N.Mendel/Ch.Shiflett/P.Smear) - 4:16

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Dave Groh - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar on [4]
Pat Smear - Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Baritone Guitar
Nate Mende - Bass
Taylor Hawkins - Drums, Backing Vocals, Percussion
Chris Shiflett - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals, Tenor Guitar
 
Bob Mould - Guitar on [3], Backing Vocals on [3,10]
Krist Novoselic - Bass & Accordion on [10]
Rami Jaffee - Keyboards on [1,2], Mellotron on [10], Organ on [3,11]
Jessy Greene - Violin on [10]
Fee Waybil - Backing Vocals on [9]
Butch Vig − Percussion on [7]
Drew Hester − Percussion on [5], Hidden Cowbell Strike on [2]
 
Butch Vig - Producer
James Brown - Engineer
Alan Moulder - Mixing
Joe Laporta - Mastering
Emily Lazar - Mastering
Morning Breath Inc. - Art Direction & Design
Steve Gullick - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2011 CD Columbia / RCA - 88697844932
2011 CD RCA - 88697870702
2011 CD RCA - 88697872772
 
 
 
Forget all that nonsense about Dave Grohl listening to the Bee Gees and ABBA when writing Wasting Light. You can even forget Bob Mould's killer cameo on "Dear Rosemary,” no matter how seamlessly the Hüsker Dü frontman’s patented growl slides into the Foo Fighters' roar. 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. Nowhere is Homme's tightly defined muscle felt as strongly as it is on "White Limo," a blast of heavy sleaze that's kind of a rewrite of "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar,” yet Grohl isn’t thieving -- he’s tweaking his frequent bandmate with a song that could have graced SFTD or Them Crooked Vultures. That sense of humor is welcome on Wasting Light, nearly as welcome as the guitars that ring loud and long. Things tend to crawl on the ballads, as they usually do on a Foos record, but these slower spots have a stately dignity that contrasts well with the untrammeled rock of the rest of the album. Perhaps Butch Vig -- working with Grohl for the first time since Nevermind (and that’s not the only Nirvana connection, as Krist Novoselic plays bass on “I Should Have Known”) -- should take some credit for the ferocious sound of Wasting Light, but the album isn’t the Foo Fighters' best since their ‘90s heyday because of its sound; it’s their best collection of songs since The Colour and the Shape, the kind of record they’ve always seemed on the verge of delivering but never have.
 
Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide
 
 
 
The press materials for Foo Fighters’ seventh album, Wasting Light, emphasize a return to basics: The band recorded it in Dave Grohl’s garage in California, on analog tape, supposedly without computer assistance. It was produced by Butch Vig, who also recorded Nirvana’s Nevermind, and “Dear Rosemary” features Grohl’s hero Bob Mould, who nearly recorded that album. Continuing that thread, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic plays bass and accordion on “I Should Have Known.” Wasting Light also marks the full-time return of original member Pat Smear, appearing on his first Foo Fighters studio album since 1997’s The Colour And The Shape. The disc even comes with a piece of magnetic tape.
 
The band needed to return to basics after 2007’s forgettable Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, which followed the excessive but otherwise great double album In Your Honor in 2005. As a return to Foo Fighters’ specialty—melodic, hard-hitting rock with soaring choruses—Wasting Light is a success. Every song hits the band’s sweet spot; “White Limo” escalates things to Queens Of The Stone Age levels, and even the more balladic “I Should Have Known” can’t stay quiet for long. That said, the album’s biggest hooky earworm chorus doesn’t arrive until track seven, “Back & Forth.” “Dear Rosemary,” with the assist from Mould, comes close, but it’s a little surprising that an album so obsessed with getting back to the basics doesn’t deliver the hooks Grohl and company do so well.
 
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. That’s one old habit no one wants to see again.
 
Kyle Ryan - Apr 12, 2011
© Copyright 2016 Onion
 
 
 
We’re a measly two decades out, but ’90s nostalgia is already hitting its dubious peak: Scuffed-up Doc Martens and slouchy flannel shirts are ubiquitous again, My So-Called Life DVDs are required (re-)viewing, and Pearl Jam are steadily reissuing their grunge-defining back catalog.
 
Still, it’s hard for any new band to compete with Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl’s post-Nirvana behemoth. Wasting Light, the group’s seventh studio album — and first since 2007 — was recorded with rock überproducer Butch Vig (he manned the boards for Sonic Youth, the Smashing Pumpkins, and, yes, Nirvana) in Grohl’s basement using only analog equipment. As if that weren’t enough, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould, and the Germs’ Pat Smear, who played with the Foos from 1994 to ‘97, all appear, forming a kind of Voltron of ’90s alt-ness.
 
Here’s the miracle, though: Foo Fighters never feel like a backward-looking band. 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. ”Bridge Burning” is rich and fiery — its layered chorus and machine-gun percussion will knock you over on first listen — while ”These Days” is a tough, moody power ballad in the melancholic spirit of 1997’s ”Everlong.” ”Once upon a time, I was somebody else,” Grohl growls on ”Back & Forth,” but it turns out he’s still that guy — affable yet fierce, and ready with a memorable chorus. 
 
Rating: A-
 
Amanda Petrusich - March 31 2011
Copyright © 2016 Entertainment Weekly
 
 
 
When a band's music takes them into stadiums, the stadiums can often then exert undue influence on their music. Thus Wasting Light is a typically supersized arena-rock barrage, with lots of howling and wailing, every chorus tailored to imaginary walls of pyrotechnics and some tracks seemingly specifically constructed to accommodate a guitar spot or drum solo. Recorded in Grohl's garage with Nirvana's Nevermind producer Butch Vig at the console and that band's live guitarist Pat Smear back in the fold, it's not so much a reconnection with their roots as what Nirvana might have turned into if Kurt Cobain hadn't died. That said, 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.
 
Dave Simpson - 7 April 2011
© 2016 Guardian News and Media
 
 
 
The victory lap is almost as important for the soul as crossing the line first. Getting back to the base elements of what makes you you is the only way to stay sane and rein shit in; trying to rebottle the lightning is only going to end badly. You know who tries to do stuff like that? Johnny Borrell. And no-one likes that guy.
 
‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ saw the Foos tip their grandest scale yet. A widescreen rock album embraced by mortals and gods alike (the 180,000 souls who crammed themselves into Wembley Stadium in June ’08 represent the popular vote; Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones coming out to jam on old Zep tunes on the second night demonstrates the extent to which the very architects of the genre smile upon them), it confirmed beyond any doubt their status as one of the biggest bands in the world. 
 
But what next, after the hugeness of those shows? Wake up hungover after a monstrous night – the sort of night that lasts for three days – and what do you most want to do? Take comfort: in food, in hot drinks, in warmth, in company. The Foos went back to what they know, taking comfort in familiarity. And what’s more familiar than your own house? “Back in the garage with my bullshit detector” goes ‘Garageland’, the last song on The Clash’s first album, and if ‘Wasting Light’ had a mantra, it’d be that. Everything about the Foos’ seventh album – at this point they’ve released as many as or more records than Oasis, Fugazi, Nirvana, The Clash, Black Flag, QOTSA, Soundgarden and Faith No More, among others, which is a quite staggering achievement – smacks of decisions made with the question ‘Hey guys, does this suck?’ used as the ultimate yardstick.
 
And it’s something of a pleasure to report that ‘Wasting Light’ does not suck, not even a little bit – it’s both broad and focused enough to appeal to casuals and longhairs alike, and it’s doubtless their best record since ‘The Colour And The Shape’. And, because they’re answering to no-one except their own consciences, it makes perfect sense for the Foo Fighters to beat a partial retreat of sorts. That they committed it all to analogue tape in Grohl’s own garage in Virginia with Butch Vig producing, the first time the two had worked together since Vig produced ‘Nevermind’ in ’91, suggests a more casual, relaxed atmosphere (one imagines Grohl wandering around in a towel, scratching his balls and offering casual high fives while guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear lay down takes).
 
That doesn’t tell the full story, though. A setup like that would have been phenomenally expensive, and working in this way all five Foos – bassist Nate Mendel and drummer Taylor Hawkins completing the set – would have had to have been strictly on point: no fixing fluffed solos or squeaky strings on this one. It’s a joy to report that it worked, gloriously. ‘Wasting Light’ is the pure sound of the band being the band, and through headphones or a decent system it sounds phenomenal. Yeah, they know everyone’s going to be listening to it on shitty iPod earbuds or laptop speakers, but the point isn’t to cater to the masses. The point is to make a rock album and let the masses subsequently bellow their approval.
 
It’s testament to how comprehensively they succeeded that while Krist Novoselic’s appearance on ‘I Should Have Known’ is, y’know, interesting, because it’s Vig, Novoselic and Grohl all making music in a room together for the first time since, y’know, that other album, the abiding feeling after hearing it is admiration at what a great, old-fashioned torch song it is, rather than the calibre or backstory of the performers. It’s the same deal with the quasi-duet with Bob Mould from Hüsker Dü/Sugar, ‘Dear Rosemary’, which is a brilliantly chiming, anthemic song of real restraint and grace that shows the parts themselves to be very much secondary to their sum. 
 
Moreover, Pat Smear makes a full-time return to the band for the first time since ‘The Colour…’ and it’s conceivable that he’s the fuel behind ‘White Limo’’s exhilarating thrash-punk fire (a digression: considering his CV contains stints with the Germs, Adolescents and Nirvana, a case could be made for Smear being one of the most badass of punk rock journeymen, second only to Brian Baker). Again, however, the song’s so good, will anyone wipe the sweat from their eyes to even check the liner notes?
 
Elsewhere, ‘Bridge Burning’ is the sort of gutsy fist-pumper that will – will, no doubt about it – sound majestic ringing out over Milton Keynes at a million decibels. More than that, it’s one of the best opening tracks on a mainstream rock album in years, while the likes of ‘These Days’ and ‘A Matter Of Time’ are more melodic but no less invigorating. The former in particular benefits from the painstaking production: you can hear fingertips brushing strings as the fretboard gently buzzes, before all manner of mahogany-rich guitars come crashing in and, as with ‘Rope’, it blossoms into the sort of song that will make people drive just that little bit faster the world over. And, uniquely for late-period Foos albums, there’s no real downtime, as ‘Arlandria’ and ‘Miss The Misery’ are big rock of the arms-aloft variety without losing any of the subtlety of the band’s best work.
 
And no, ‘subtlety’ isn’t a typo – the best guitar music is a conflagration of worn clichés revitalised and re-energised by the deft touch of inventive, exciting musicians, and that’s exactly what this album does. ‘Wasting Light’, and the mindset of 2011-era Foos, is effectively summed up by Grohl himself on closer ‘Walk’: “I never wanna die! I never wanna die!” he yells, and why would he? Sounds like his band are having too much fun. 
 
Rating: 8/10
 
Rob Parker - Apr 6, 2011
©1996-2016 Time Inc. (UK) 
 
 
 
The back-to-basics album Wasting Light reunites Dave Grohl with producer Butch Vig and former Nirvana mates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear. 
 
Dave Grohl didn't make it easy for himself. Not long after Nirvana dissolved in April 1994, following Kurt Cobain's suicide, Grohl was offered the opportunity to back Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. For him, a Petty fan, that was a dream job. Though he would drum with them during a "Saturday Night Live" performance later that year, Grohl ultimately declined, to start over from scratch and do what he's still doing today: front a band.
 
At the time, that decision was probably daunting. Grohl had already spent some time in a Seattle studio recording a humble demo tape that would become Foo Fighters' debut, one for whose release rights major labels were already grappling. But the sizable shadow cast by Cobain and the weight of his legacy and death was immense. This week, coupled with Wasting Light, their seventh full-length, Foo Fighters have been screening their new, somewhat revisionist, sometimes 3-D retrospective documentary, Back and Forth. There's some great footage early on during what was Grohl's very first tour (opening for Mike Watt) with his brand new band. 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. "Marigold!" they'd scream out between songs, in hopes of hearing the one Grohl-penned Nirvana tune there was. He never played it.
 
The idea of Grohl opening for anyone now seems just as ridiculous as him having to field requests for anything but one of the two dozen modern rock hits he's released since. But in Wasting Light, Grohl is attempting to come full circle. The plan was to go back to basics, in a few ways: 1) record the album to tape in Grohl's San Fernando Valley garage, 2) hire famed Nevermind producer Butch Vig to man the boards, 3) bring former Germs, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear back into the mix, 4) have founding Nirvana member and bassist Krist Novoselic down from Seattle to guest on some of the recordings. As Grohl says during Back and Forth, before recording began in earnest, "I love that we're going to make an album at home. It's going to sound like it was recorded in a house. I know it will."
 
It doesn't. In fact, said garage was built with the arena in mind, and as a result Wasting Light sounds just as mammoth and capable of knocking out teeth as anything Foo Fighters have recorded since the late 90s. That's more a product of force than hooks. 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. Vig is renowned for sugaring up recordings, but here, the aim seems solely about knocking down walls. Front to back, Wasting Light meets that cause with lean, workmanlike aplomb. 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.
 
But Foo Fighters' long-standing foundation has been built on fist-pumpers. 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. There just isn't a melody or hook to really amplify. Those songs here that hold tightly to Grohl's long perfected, quiet-LOUD formula and crescendos-- see: alt-rock lullabies "Arlandria" and "These Days", or the pop-punk door-to-ass closer "Walk"-- come closest to matching the energy of his best work. In theory, as a form of therapy, it still works. Former Hüsker Dü frontman and fellow 80s punker Bob Mould guests semi-audibly on the Zeppelin-like crunch of "Dear Rosemary" and then of course, there's Novoselic's turn on "I Should Have Known", where the latter's bass sounds as round and bowling ball-heavy as it did on Nirvana's "Sliver".
 
There's a scene not long into Back and Forth, when Grohl remembers, "People really resented me for starting this band, for making music they thought 'sounded just like Nirvana.' What? You mean loud rock guitars? Melodies? Cymbals crashing? Big-ass drums? Well, that's what I do." It's true. He always did. It's just that, this time out, it's his melodies that are missed most.
 
David Bevan - Apr. 15, 2011
pitchfork.com
 
 
 
"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." If only it was that easy. Seventeen years after the death of Nirvana guitarist Kurt Cobain, the shattering end of Grohl's previous band continues to haunt the popwise punk he makes as the singer-guitarist-boss of Foo Fighters. "Memories keep haunting me/Help me chase them all away," Grohl pleads on Wasting Light, through the guitar rain of "Arlandria," sounding like a guy who knows there will never be enough amps and distortion in the world to drown out the unanswered whys in his head.
 
But this album is a special case on two counts. The first: Eleven tracks of fuzz-box brawn, mosh-pit-hurrah choruses and iron-horse momentum, Wasting Light is the best Foos album since the first two, Grohl's all-solo 1995 debut, Foo Fighters, and the first full-band blast, 1997's The Colour and the Shape. 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. "Bridge Burning," which opens the record with insect-chatter guitars and Hawkins' avalanche rolls, is hellbent metal with a chrome-finish vocal hook. "Rope" has a chopped surge that evokes mid-Seventies Led Zeppelin, then straightens out for a later-vintage payoff: a ragged alt-rock glow with rough-boy harmonies. 
 
Wasting Light is also overdue confrontation: Grohl explicitly returning to a broken and still-painful past, for both inspiration and closure. 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. And Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic plays on "I Should Have Known," a song that does not mention Cobain by name but reverberates with his consuming absence. "Didn't hear your warning/Damn my heart gone deaf," Grohl sings as the initial darkness – a solitary guitar and the quiet cutting guilt in his voice, set in inky reverb – slowly blows up to a purging rage: "No, I cannot forgive you yet/To leave my heart in debt." If you ever thought Foo Fighters were Nirvana-lite because Grohl lacked Cobain's torment, get ready to apologize.
 
There are references to death – and the responsibility to leave things better than when you came in – all over this album. They also come in excited, defiant breaths. In "Dear Rosemary," Grohl gets a great vocal assist from a hardcore icon, Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould. And while Wasting Light could have ended, to perfect brute effect, at track 10 ("I Should Have Known"), the Foos go out with a kick in the ass: "Walk," a Cheap Trick-style uproar about taking one step at a time for as long as you can. "I think I found my place," Grohl crows – like someone with no plans to split any time soon.
 
David Fricke - April 8, 2011
rollingstone.com
 
 
 
Every new Foo Fighters record brings with it an increasingly insecure expectation that perhaps the band will regain a fraction of the alterna-rock goodness that was their 1995 self-titled debut and its follow-up, The Colour and the Shape. The usual expectations are heightened on Wasting Light with the inclusion of steady-handed super-producer Butch Vig, the long-overdue return of guitarist Pat Smear, a guest appearance by Krist Novoselic, and what is supposedly a strict adherence to analog-only production. Listeners’ opinions of the band’s seventh album will largely be decided by how excited they are by those last four details, and ultimately, how they reconcile the fact that, despite those things, Wasting Light appears to be just another good, if forgettable, entry in the Foo Fighters catalogue.
 
Then again, “mixed bag” might be a more adequate description. Dave Grohl has jettisoned much of the filler that has plagued the band’s last few albums, particularly Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, but has simultaneously abandoned the hooky-heavy power that fueled the band’s original climb from out of Nirvana’s colossal shadow. As a result, the band relies much more heavily on chunky guitar movement than riff-crafting. The growing aversion to anthemic songs is puzzling given that the obvious high points of Wasting Light are those that strive for stadium-pleasing melodies: The hard-soft, angry-calm dynamics of “These Days,” for instance, where Grohl’s customary growl finds a home in the surge of a buzzing chorus, as well as the playful, chunky buildup of “Back & Forth,” or the intense, husky drive of “Dear Rosemary.”
 
Unfortunately, tracks such as those are the exception, as listeners will be forced to deal with pieces like “White Limo,” a “Monkey Wrench” clone that lacks any of that song’s polish or fun, and the clumsy, confused “Arlandria,” which attempts to reconcile a loud-quiet dichotomy, but ends up being bland, nondescript, and a minute too long. When Grohl screams, “Fame, fame, go away, come again some other day,” in a phlegm-addled rage toward the track’s conclusion, it has little of the sincerity or impact the band once rendered with ease. The additions of Vig, Smear, and Novoselic end up doing little except reminding listeners of better days, when the Foo Fighters could deliver something as raw and witty as “Stacked Actors” on the same album as catchy pop-rock gems like “Generator” and “Headwires.” With its long stretches of banal rock, Wasted Light is capable of no such feat.
 
Kevin Liedel - April 13, 2011
slantmagazine.com
 
 
 
First Dave Grohl learned to fly. Then, in “Times Like These,” he learned to love and live again. Grohl’s latest lesson? “Learning to walk again,” as he puts it near the end of the seventh Foo Fighters album. That back-to-basics aspiration is no coincidence: After scaling the uppermost heights of modern-rock stardom — Grammy Awards, stadium shows, occasionally drumming for Paul McCartney, and a side project with a dude from Led Freaking Zeppelin — Grohl built a recording studio in his San Fernando Valley garage last year and hired Nevermind producer Butch Vig to oversee Wasting Light, which includes a guest appearance by Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and heralds Pat Smear’s full-fledged return to the Foo fold. The thing should come wrapped in flannel.
 
Yet Wasting Light is much more than a salad-days nostalgia trip — it’s Grohl’s most memorable set of songs since 1997’s The Colour and the Shape. Three-guitar riff bombs, like “Bridge Is Burning” and “White Limo,” brandish real heavy-metal muscle, while the insanely catchy “Back and Forth” summons some of Nevermind’s poisoned-pop frenzy. In “I Should Have Known,” with Novoselic on bass, Grohl even snatches back the bluesy power ballad from Kings of Leon. But nowhere does this seen-it-all survivor seem more engaged than he does in “Walk,” where over a typically surging arena-emo groove he convincingly describes his determination to “keep alive a moment at a time.” Sounds simple, feels anything but.
 
Mikael Wood - April 12, 2011
SpinMedia.com
 
 
 
Wasting Light is the seventh studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters. It was released on April 12, 2011 on RCA Records, and is the first album to feature rhythm guitarist Pat Smear since The Colour and the Shape (1997), making the band a five piece with the album. Wishing to capture the essence of the group's earlier work and avoid the artificiality of digital recording, frontman Dave Grohl arranged for the band to record in his garage in Encino, California using only analog equipment. The sessions were supervised by producer Butch Vig, with whom Grohl had worked on Nirvana's Nevermind. 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. The band went for a heavier and rawer sound to contrast with the musical experiments from their previous albums, and most of the lyrics were written as Grohl reflected upon his life and possible future. Guest musicians include Bob Mould, Krist Novoselic, Jessy Greene, Rami Jaffe and Fee Waybill.
 
The recording sessions were documented for fans on the band's website and Twitter, and the album's promotion included the documentary Back and Forth and a worldwide concert tour that included concerts played in fans' garages. Wasting Light was preceded by the successful single "Rope", which became only the second song ever to debut at number one on Billboard's Rock Songs chart. The follow-up single, "Walk", also charted highly. The album was a commercial success, debuting at number one in eleven countries, and it received positive reviews from most music critics, who complimented its production and the band's songwriting. In 2012, Wasting Light and its songs earned Foo Fighters five Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album.
 
After the Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace tour ended in 2008, the Foo Fighters went to Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood to record 14 compositions written during the tours so as to possibly release a new album without much promotion and touring. The band eventually decided to take a break instead of continuing to work on those recordings. Three songs from those sessions saw a later release: "Wheels" and "Word Forward", were rerecorded for the band's Greatest Hits album, and "Rope" became a part of Wasting Light. As "Wheels" and "Word Forward" were the reunion of frontman Dave Grohl with producer Butch Vig, who had previously worked with Nirvana on their breakthrough album Nevermind, Grohl thought it was finally time to bring Vig to produce the next Foo Fighters album.
 
The idea of a new album came back in 2010, as frontman Dave Grohl was touring Australia with Them Crooked Vultures. Grohl decided that "we should make a documentary about the recording of this new album and make it a history of the band too. Rather than just record the album in the most expensive studio with the most state-of-the-art equipment, what if Butch and I were to get back together after 20 years and dust off the tape machines and put them in my garage?" Grohl later elaborated that Vig was brought in so the record could be "that one album that kinda defines the band: it might not be their best album, but it's the one people identify the band with the most, like Back In Black or the Metallica Black Album. It's like you take all of the things that people consider your band's signature characteristics and just amplify them and make one simple album with that. And that's sorta what I thought we could do with Butch, because Butch has a great way of trimming all the fat and making sense of it all." Grohl also used the tour with the Vultures to turn song ideas into demos, which were then brought to drummer Taylor Hawkins to be further developed. The album would also mark the return of guitarist Pat Smear as a permanent member; Smear left the Foo Fighters after the release of The Colour and the Shape, but had been part of the touring band since 2006.
 
    "I get to [Dave Grohl's] house and the first thing he says is, 'I really wanna do this in my garage.' So we went downstairs and set up a snare drum. I said, 'Well, it sounds really loud and trashy, but I don't see why we can't do it.' Then he said he wanted to record on tape with no computers. That threw me for a loop; I've made lots of records that way, just not for the last 10 years. But Dave really wanted it to be about the sound and the performance. They'd just played some shows at Wembley Stadium, and he told me, 'We've gotten so huge, what's left to do? We could go back to 606 and make a big, slick, super-tight record just like the last one. Or we could try to capture the essence of the first couple of Foo Fighters records.'"
    Butch Vig on how the album came to be
 
 Unlike the band's previous two albums, Wasting Light was recorded in Dave Grohl's garage in Encino, California, as opposed to the band's home-built studio, Studio 606. Regarding this decision, Grohl states: "There's poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. Why go into the most expensive studio with the biggest producer and use the best state-of-the-art equipment? Where's the rock'n'roll in that?" Grohl added it was a way to "do something really primal sounding", innovate, break people's expectations and "make records the way we used to fucking make records".
 
The album was recorded using entirely analogue equipment until post-mastering. Grohl said it was done that way because he felt digital recording was getting out of control: "when I listen to music these days, and I hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine- it kinda sucks the life out of music." According to Grohl, the analog strategy would make the record "sound rawer and somewhat imperfect", something which guitarist Chris Shiflett agreed was beneficial, declaring that "rock n'roll is about flaws and imperfections". Bassist Nate Mendel added that "we grew up making records on tape, which has a certain sound, certain limitations", and drummer Taylor Hawkins said that the digital recording in contemporary rock n' roll lead to an artificial sound : "they kinda played it and then how someone else manipulated it in a computer, to make them sound a certain way." Hawkins believed an analog project would help the band reclaim its artistic freedom.
 
Once Vig learned about the analog project, at first he considered Grohl was joking, but then replied that "You guys have to play really well, because nothing is gonna be fixed" since mistakes are not as easily correctable as in a digital recording. With that in mind, the band spent three weeks doing pre-production and rehearsals at Studio 606, where the composition was completed, going "from forty songs to fourteen", and said songs were rehearsed to be recorded live, while in previous records, as put by Mendel, "we'd often come up with parts in the studio, and the songs would evolve". Smear added that the band committed to not change what would end recorded: "Whatever we did, we didn’t change it. If a distorted vocal went through a pedal, that’s what it was going to be.”
 
Grohl's garage was equipped with microphones, sound baffles on the garage door and behind the drums to prevent sound leakings, and a carpet under the drum kit to make it sound less "loud and bright". To reduce the cymbal bleed, the microphones were rearranged and the crash cymbal was traded for a "shorter-decay Zildjian cymbal with holes drilled in it". A room next to the study was turned into an isolation booth to record the vocals. For the recording itself a makeshift control room was built inside a tent on the backyard, and a system of two cameras and a television provided the communication between the garage and the control room. The equipment was the same the band employed to record the albums There Is Nothing Left to Lose and One by One at Grohl's former house in Alexandria, Virginia.
 
Recording of the album began September 6, 2010, lasting for eleven weeks, each one focusing on a particular song, something Vig stated "was good because each song kinda had its own life". The recordings started with Grohl's rhythm guitar and Taylor Hawkins' drumming to provide the foundations and see if both could "lock in". Hawkins usually played for hours before he got "a drum track I'd be proud of". Click tracks were used, but Vig said that there was not a worry for the drums to follow it exactly as they "wanted it to groove" and "we realized that when everything is off just a few milliseconds, the sound gets wider and thicker." After the guitar and drum track, Mendel would play his basslines, which were practiced enough for them to be recorded perfectly on the first take. The following day, Shiflett and Smear would play guitars, with the latter being the last and usually being given a baritone guitar to have a different sound from the other guitarists. After the instrumental backing was ready, Grohl did the vocals either on the control room or the isolation booth. As Grohl wanted the songs "to have maximum emotional potential", the vocals were screamed to the point he had headaches—"when the mic is picking up every tiny inconsistency, you really strain to make it sound right."
 
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". Mould also played guitar on the track, even though Vig's plans had him just singing. Grohl's and Smear's former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic appeared in "I Should Have Known" as Grohl thought "it would be nice to have him come down and share the experience" and that the song would be enhanced by his bass and accordion-playing." "Miss the Misery" features Fee Waybill of The Tubes, a personal friend of Grohl who said that the frontman invited him because "the background vocal sounded like him". Other guest musicians included three members of the expanded touring band, keyboardist Rami Jaffee, violinist Jessy Greene and percussionist Drew Hester.
 
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." The producer said that during recording he "had to force my brain to fire different synapses" to remember how to deal with the analog equipment and the lack of a digital display. One of the habits Vig had to call back was editing using a razor blade—"I used to be able to do 20 edits in half an hour if need be. It took me about 20 minutes to do the first edit!"—a technique he employed for the first songs recorded. Eventually he gave up and decided to punch in and punch out tapes instead, as the process was time-consuming and a more editable tape sent to Vig from Smart Studios was mostly ruined by one of Grohl's daughters. While many recordings had inserts and some parts rerecorded, the only song that had to be redone from scratch was "I Should Have Known", as Grohl felt Vig was "trying to make this into a radio single" when the singer wanted it "to sound really raw and primal".
 
The mixing started at Chalice Recording Studios, but moved to Grohl's house as engineer Alan Moulder said it was the way "to make it sound like your garage." Since Grohl's mixing console was not automated, at times four people—Vig, Grohl, Moulder and engineer James Brown—had to work simultaneously on the board, something Grohl found interesting because every song was done differently and "even the mixes sounded like performances" The mixes were tested out in the cars of the band members and Vig, as they felt that "if it sounds good on a lousy stereo, it will sound good anywhere".
 
The recording of the album was filmed as part of a career-spanning documentary called Back and Forth, which Grohl said was essential to make audiences understand the decision to record the album in his garage. The album name, taken from a lyric in "Miss the Misery", was chosen by Grohl because "it seemed to resonate with me: 'OK, that's what we're here doing'", as the band always "recorded each album thinking it could be our last" and tried to take the most of their tenure together—"we're only here for a short time, we're lucky to be alive, lucky to be a band; I don't take any of this for granted; I don't want to spend my time looking backwards, I want to look forwards".
 
For Wasting Light, Grohl stated that they would go back to a rawer and heavier sound after "exploring new musical ground" on the previous records, adding that "with the last album we were too concerned with being musical, now it's time for us to be a rock band again". To contrast with the "seven or eight minute-long songs, with seven or eight sections, and two or three time changes" Grohl played with Them Crooked Vultures, he instead tried to compose the "tightest, catchiest four-and-a-half-minute 'softball bat to your face' songs". Hawkins added that he liked Wasting Light for being "straightforward, and that’s a good thing for us right now. The last couple [records] had some big dynamic changes." Grohl described the effort as their heaviest yet, later saying it was done because "I'm 42 now. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make this record when I'm 46 or 49. It's my last chance." While the demos that prompted Grohl to say the album would be their heaviest yet were not used on the album, Vig took the declarations to heart, following three criteria while recording: "It's got to be hooky, heavy, and we're going analog all the way."
 
For the guitar sound, the group tried to balance Grohl's "playing the rhythm straight up the middle", Shiflett's "sharp and clean sense of melodic playing", and Smear's more aggressive sound, with Grohl declaring that "with three guitars, you have to be careful that it doesn't become a huge fucking mess. But when everybody's playing their thing really well, it sounds perfectly orchestrated." Smear would usually play his parts on a baritone guitar, which would both contrast with Grohl and Shiflett and add a heavier sound - as Grohl declared, "if we ever felt like a section wasn't heavy enough, we put the fuckin' baritone on it, and it became huge." Hawkins added many buzz rolls to his drum fills at the suggestion of Vig, as buzz rolls were a trademark of one of the producer's favorite drummers, Ian Paice.
 
    "I was writing about time. And how much has passed and feeling born again, feeling like a survivor, thinking about mortality and death and life, and how beautiful it is to be surrounded by friends and family and making music."
    Dave Grohl on the song lyrics
 
The lyrics for Wasting Light were completed during the week each song was being recorded. Grohl said that the words were "what was on my mind each week", most being "written from the perspective of who I was then and who I am now", with references to the past, life and death, and "time, but questioning whether it matters at all. There's so much focus on the before that people forget there's an after." The frontman said this was helped by the environment - "a lot of retrospection and introspection and nostalgia going back to the way we used to make records" - and working with Vig again, which "made me think a lot about starting over, and rebirth, and making your way through tragedy and coming out the other side." An example was "I Should Have Known", partially inspired by former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain - "a song like 'I Should Have Known' is about all the people I've lost, not just Kurt". Grohl still tried to do laid-back songs such as "White Limo", which had its lyrics written in just two minutes, specially after Mendel sent him an e-mail saying, "I really like it when you write songs that are silly and mean nothing, too. You don't have to try to write 'Imagine' every time you sit down with a pen and paper".
 
The album debuted at number one in twelve countries. Wasting Light was the first Foo Fighters album to top the United States' Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 235,000 copies, their second-highest sales week, following In Your Honor's first-week sales of 311,000 copies in 2005. In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 21,000 copies in its first week. In the UK, the album's 114,000 units broke Adele's 11-week run atop the UK Album Charts.
 
On the week of Wasting Light's release, 6 different tracks from the album made the UK Top 40 Rock Chart. 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. In both Australia and New Zealand Wasting Light had the biggest first week digital album sales in their chart histories. The album also topped the charts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Singapore. Wasting Light has sold 663,000 copies in the US as of January 6, 2012, and closed 2011 with 380,000 units sold in the UK.
 
Wasting Light received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 37 reviews. Andrew Perry of The Daily Telegraph viewed it as by far the band's best album and found it "tough but accessible, reliably catchy, yet also surprising at the last." Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called its rock sound "untrammeled" and cited it as "the fiercest album they've ever made ... the kind of record they've always seemed on the verge of delivering but never have." Mikael Wood of Spin observed a "back-to-basics aspiration" and dubbed the album "Grohl's most memorable set of songs since 1997's The Colour and the Shape." 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". Paul Brannigan of Q praised Grohl's lyrics and called Wasting Light "the most life-affirming, positively-charged album of his career." David Fricke, writing for Rolling Stone, commended Grohl's themes and Butch Vig's "nuanced approach to weight and release." Kyle Ryan of The A.V. Club said that, although it lacks recognizable hooks, the album also lacks the filler of the band's previous albums and stated, "As a return to Foo Fighters' specialty—melodic, hard-hitting rock with soaring choruses—Wasting Light is a success."
 
In a mixed review, Slant Magazine's Kevin Liedel criticized the band's "growing aversion to anthemic songs," writing that "the obvious high points of Wasting Light are those that strive for stadium-pleasing melodies." Dave Simpson of The Guardian noted an "undue" arena influence and called the album "a typically supersized arena-rock barrage, with lots of howling and wailing, every chorus tailored to imaginary walls of pyrotechnics and some tracks seemingly specifically constructed to accommodate a guitar spot or drum solo." Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune felt that, although it is "competently" performed, the songs are not innovative and suffer from "clichés", including "hardcore punk screed", "streamlined rocker", and "melodramatic power ballad". Pitchfork Media's David Bevan commented that "there just isn't a melody or hook to really amplify." Andy Gill of The Independent criticized its "bombastic level" and stated "the presumed desire for back-to-the-roots simplicity ... jettisons the diversity of Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace."
 
Wasting Light and its songs were nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. The record won the Best Rock Album award, while "White Limo" was chosen as the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance and "Walk" won both Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. The album was chosen as the 4th best album of 2011 by Kerrang!, and listed in three rankings of the 50 best albums of the year: 20th by Rolling Stone, 43rd by NME, and 46th by Spin. It was also listed among The Hollywood Reporter's ten best albums of 2011, and chosen as the album of the year by iTunes.
 
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