Album · Foo Fighters
Wasting Light by Foo Fighters
Wasting Light is an album by Foo Fighters, released in 2011. 6 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 144 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Walk”, on 54 lists and voted number one twice.
Wasting Light, Foo Fighters' seventh album, came out on Roswell and RCA in April 2011, and Dave Grohl made it the hard way: in the garage of his home in Encino, California, on analog gear only, with Butch Vig, his producer from Nirvana's Nevermind, relearning old-school editing tricks. With no digital safety net to fix mistakes, the band rehearsed the songs for three weeks before the tape rolled.
The payoff is the heaviest, rawest Foos record in years. Pat Smear is back as a full member, so Grohl, Chris Shiflett and Smear grind away three guitars deep while Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins drive from below, and Grohl's lyrics take stock of his life so far and wonder what comes next. Bob Mould and Krist Novoselic drop in as guests. "Rope" and "Walk" were the singles, the album debuted at number one in eleven countries, and at the 2012 Grammys it took Best Rock Album among four wins.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Wasting Light on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walk | 54 | #1 | 2 | 2011–2025 | |
| 2 | Rope | 47 | #1 | 1 | 2011–2023 | |
| 3 | These Days | 33 | #3 | – | 2011–2025 | |
| 4 | Bridge Burning | 6 | #50 | – | 2011–2012 | |
| 5 | Arlandria | 3 | #36 | – | 2011 | |
| 6 | Back & Forth | 1 | #13 | – | 2012 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.