Albums to watch

Wasting Light

Foo Fighters

Wasting Light

Dave Grohl brings in Nevermind producer Butch Vig for the veteran alt.rock band's latest, recorded on analogue tape and with a guest appearance from Krist Novoselic

ADM rating[?]

6.9

Label
Columbia
UK Release date
11/04/2011
US Release date
12/04/2011
  1. 9.0 |   Spin

    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
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  2. 9.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    The drought is over. Rock is back
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  3. 9.0 |   musicOMH

    Foo Fighters have managed to keep their wheels spinning for nearly two decades, consistently turning in records that define their genre in its place and time. Wasting Light is no exception
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  4. 9.0 |   Blurt

    Grohl and band have created a near perfect rock record for every Generation X kid
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  5. 8.1 |   Beats Per Minute

    A refreshing step forward for a band not quite ready to age gracefully
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  6. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    One of the best albums of the year, and of their career
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  7. 8.0 |   The Digital Fix

    F***ing tremendous. It’s an absolute, blinding joy
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  8. 8.0 |   State

    Upbeat, unchallenging and ultimately very enjoyable
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  9. 8.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Eleven tracks of fuzz-box brawn, mosh-pit-hurrah choruses and iron-horse momentum
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  10. 8.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    Foo Fighters’s defining moment
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  11. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    If there's an overall feeling here, it's a sense of being relaxed with every point of a long career, ready to have some more fun
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  12. 8.0 |   NME

    It's both broad and focused enough to appeal to casuals and longhairs alike, and it's their best record since The Colour And The Shape
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  13. 8.0 |   Q

    The defining album of his career, Wasting Light is the sound of Dave Grohl putting his whole life into context. Print edition only

  14. 8.0 |   Mojo

    The unabashed joy in rock is played to the hilt on their seventh album. Print edition only

  15. 7.5 |   A.V. Club

    Foo Fighters’ first generally good record in six years, solid from top to bottom without the filler that marred the band’s early records
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  16. 7.0 |   Rave Magazine

    Delivers rock & roll stomp by the truckload
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  17. 7.0 |   Clash

    Doesn’t develop this great band’s catalogue as it might’ve done given the personnel involved
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  18. 7.0 |   No Ripcord

    This is as far removed from the Alternative Nation as you can get
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  19. 7.0 |   FasterLouder

    Contains some of the most blistering songs of their career but it is ultimately let down by sub-standard rockers that should be stomping when they are trudging.
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  20. 7.0 |   Entertainment.ie

    Only time will tell, but this may well be the Foos' best album since 'The Colour and The Shape'
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  21. 6.4 |   Pitchfork

    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
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  22. 6.0 |   The Fly

    ‘Wasting Light won’t catch anybody by surprise
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  23. 6.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Wasting Light sees the Foos jealously guard their plectrum-shaped space at the middle of a rock/ punk/metal Venn diagram, a smart and highly lucrative piece of market positioning.
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  24. 6.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Just another good, if forgettable, entry in the Foo Fighters catalogue
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  25. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    Perhaps the most satisfying Foo rocker since Learn to Fly
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  26. 6.0 |   Uncut

    These are good songs, but they're so boldly signposted, you can see them from miles away. Print edition only

  27. 6.0 |   BBC

    Nothing more than business as usual: some killer, some filler
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  28. 6.0 |   Eye Weekly

    Brash, gutsy sounds
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  29. 6.0 |   The Skinny

    A stadium band, slumming it in the garage like when they were kids, but not quite reconnecting in the way they probably hoped
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  30. 5.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    It is exactly as you would have expected it to sound, and ultimately that isn't enough for anyone who doesn't rush out on the day of release to buy their albums
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  31. 4.0 |   The Independent

    It's a drab, unrewarding experience
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  32. 4.0 |   The Observer

    Rocks just fine, but takes precisely no risks with the Foos' commercially peaking, but artistically diminishing, tattooed chug-pop
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  33. 2.0 |   The Irish Times

    It’s as if Grohl has forgotten his one-time maxim of “the beauty of minimalism and the importance of stripped down music”. Awful, just bloody awful
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