Foo Fighters’ New Album: What the Critics Are Saying

The Foo Fighters released their seventh album, Wasting Light, Tuesday. Here’s what the critics are saying:

MTV: That rough-around-the-edges spirit can be felt coursing throughout much of Wasting Light, the Foos’ rawest album to date. From knotty first single “Rope” and the neck-snapping pace of “White Limo” to the aching “I Should Have Known,” it’s an album that lets everything bleed — much to the dismay of the team of engineers brought in to helm the production.

New York Daily News: Listening to the Foos’ seventh album, “Wasting Light,” the focus falls not on the serration of the riffs or the punch of the rhythm, but on the ease and fluidity of the tunes. That’s not the sweet spot for rock, but for — you guessed it — pure pop.

USA Today: Wasting Light (* * * out of four ) wastes no time getting down to the business of melodic, aggressive, guitar-driven intensity, opening with the metallic riff monster Bridge Is Burning and anthemic modern-rock single Rope, soon followed by the dizzy din of shambolic White Limo, a reminder of frontman Dave Grohl’s Nirvana heyday… Aside from dull misstep Miss the Misery, the Foos stick to hearty and howling rockers, bending the format for the lovely Arlandria and frenetic, pop-fueled Back and Forth. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s invitingly rebellious.

U.K. Guardian: Anyone coming to Wasting Light for a back-to-basics Foos album will find instead one that is rather more thickset and refined, one that only very comfortable rock industry men might consider raw or primal. Much of Wasting Light rocks just fine, but takes precisely no risks with the Foos’ commercially peaking, but artistically diminishing, tattooed chug-pop.