My choice for album of the year, without a doubt, is Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light. An absolutely masterful album that shows David Grohl’s love of heavy music with the Foo Fighters’ trademark blend of melody and power.
Wasting Light has something for everybody. The Foo Fighters will once again gain hoards of new fans on the back of the anthemic hooks in just about every song on this album. They will retain their existing fans by recreating their trademark blend of melody and power. They will leave all of us waiting for whatever comes next.
As with Foo Fighters albums of old, Wasting Light has plenty of hooks to keep you humming each and every song throughout the day. The two opening tracks on the album, Bridge Burning and Rope, perfectly highlight the Foo’s perfect blending of melodic into heavy and back again. Great tracks for those who like to dip their feet into heavy waters while keeping their backside planted firmly on the calm shores. In Dear Rosemary, Arlandria and I Should Have Known, Grohl and the boys start of with smooth, soulful ballads and bring in short bursts of frenetic blasts that fall effortlessly into place. There is not a track on this album you will want to skip over, or that couldn’t be a massive hit single. A true mark of a great record.
The main thing that makes this album my choice for top album of the year, though, is its longevity. Often when listening to a new album I will find it entrancing on the first listen, then after the gloss has gone it dulls some with each subsequent listen until it becomes another album on the shelf gathering dust. Wasting Light manages to not be a dust gatherer. Each listen of the album brings joy and happiness, then after letting it sit for a few weeks to explore other music I find myself always returning to it. A rarity of most modern day music.