There are a few bands capable of making timeless music. The Foo Fighters actually has the potential to be one of them. Given that grunge is dead and alternative rock has taken on a seemingly flat, symphonized version of itself, this band’s music regularly sticks out as a return to classic form amidst a sea of over-produced rubbish.
Now I’ll be the first to admit I have a bias here. I love 1990’s rock. Alice n’ Chains, Sound Garden, Temple of the Dog and my beloved Pearl Jam frequent my car speakers. Foo Fighters has always been a band that pays homage to this wonderful sound – the lead singer is the drummer from Nirvana after all. Unfortunately I’ve never really been all that impressed with what they’ve produced and their latest album, “Wasting Light,” didn’t really do anything to improve those feelings.
The band’s most recent effort is a mix of high energy, up-tempo songs with a couple of ballads thrown in for balance. There is plenty of front man Dave Grohl screaming to give long-time fans that ear piercing fix they should have come to expect. Overall, the album is decent, but not great. The guitar lines are nicely melodic and the occasional solo spices up otherwise mundane tracks. The few ballads on the album flow nicely and will definitely generate some audience vocals during shows.
The problem is there is nothing that really sticks out here. It’s all been done before, and that’s the problem with bands that refuse to change with the times. Sure it’s nice to take a stroll down memory lane with a new friend, but after awhile you just want to hang with your old buddies. In the end most listeners are just going to return to the more recent sounds that are striking the music industries’ fancy.
Long time fans of the Foo should be happy, though. The band stays true to themselves and adds another dozen or so tracks to their musical library, and most of them are pretty good. But unless the listener is a diehard fan, he or she is going to give this a once, or at best twice, over and maybe come back to it a year from now for kicks. That’s the conundrum with artistic integrity. Sure you keep your faithful followers, but their number probably won’t grow.
“Wasting Light” will certainly please long-term fans, but I sincerely doubt it will grab the attention of anyone from the post-Daria era. It just doesn’t have modern music’s soulless approach that pleases tweens across the nation.