Music review- Foo Fighters

FOO FIGHTERS – WASTING LIGHT (2011)

Not only is Dave Grohl, Foo Fighter's founder/frontman/guitarist, committed to never let rock die, his post-grunge band's seventh effort since 1994 is unapologetically a classic act in virtually every way. The Foo Fighters have avoided their fancy studio lodgings for this album, opting instead to record the entire album in Grohl's garage! The result is a no-nonsense collection of raw, roaring, straight-up rock tune paired with lyrics that are often as impenetrable as Grohl's snarling vocals and ferocious guitar riffs.

Burning Bridges: Hyper Energetic with the echo of Grohl’s intro chant of “These are my famous last words” and you know that you’re in for one hell of ride.

Rope: Starts with echo coated clattered guitars before crashing into mahogany-rich cymbals. In short, kickass vocals; kickass riff and kickass drums!

White Limo: Album’s heaviest track, where Dave Grohl’s screaming vocals bang through most of it. The lyrics are majorly distorted and this itself adds to the garage-recorded-thrash-metal feel to this song. However this seems overdone at times and the endless screaming and growling becomes tiresome and (one might even say) irritating by the end of it.

Arlandria and These Days are tough, unstable energy ballads in their own melancholic spirit.

Walk: This song is what will make your time spent on listening to this 47-minute album worthwhile. You can almost feel yourself ‘million miles away’ and this is clearly the best 4 minutes of music to come out this album.

After "Wasting Light", it’s safe to say that anyone who compares Foo Fighters with Nirvana has either never heard them or has been too busy immortalizing Nirvana to hear them. And yes! Dave Grohl is not just ‘the drummer from Nirvana’. He is the Dave Grohl - founder, lead vocalist and guitarist of Foo Fighters!

Other Songs of the Album: Dear Rosemary, Back & Forth, Miss the Misery, I Should’ve Known, Matter of Time

Best of Foo Fighters: Walk, Rope, The Pretender (Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace), Best of You (In Your Honor), All This Time (One by One).

-Harshil Bhardwaj

The Cliff

And as he leaped off the cliff, all sense of fear seemed to evade him. Instead, after the initial few seconds, a sense of calmness seemed to overcome him. Adjusting himself against the rush of the wind, he seemed to realize an almost universal truth. He realized that at the age of 56 having accomplished what he wanted and having given the most of what he could, he really had no regret in dying.  He realized that instead of being unable to contribute positively anymore to the world, is it not better to snuff one’s self out?  

The fall really was unlike anything he had ever expected. He had gone skydiving but this was so much more different; so much more raw. This fall, unlike his countless others seemed to have a sense of purpose and fulfillment. There wasn't going to be any parachute that would snap open and slow him down. This time he would fall, faster and faster until only a smear of him would be left on the unforgiving rocks below.

Still he remained calm. There was no flashing of his life in front of his eyes or anything of that sort. He felt nothing but a strange tranquility. He actually enjoyed this one final experience, the wind howling in his ears, the saliva whipped away from his mouth and with the wind hammering at his eyes too hard for him to open them, he barely saw the rocks approaching. And just as everything went dark,  he smiled.

-Varun Balaji, 1st year

Nowhere to go

The station is his palace, the platform his bed

His life is filled with unmatched freedom, wants it no other way instead

Armed with his polythene bag, he grinds for his daily bread

Scrounges for plastic bottles, in every shape and size he can get

Spends everything he has, says no reason to save

It will be stolen anyway, let me live my royal way

He hides from me under the platform stairs, whitener fluid in hand

Sniffing it all day, it feels being back in his mother's lap

He was six; his uncle brought him to this town he did not know

Six more years have passed; the life promised is still unknown

He has no future, just as he has had no past

Still he lives with fervor, with hopes that just forever last.

-Pranav Kapoor, 1st year

In the name of survival, we thrust

I live here, but here is not where I belong,
The path deserted and the journey long.
Behold life around me tight, and I wince in pain.
The smiles are marked, for tears merge with rain.
I sleep with my dreams; dread the moon a tonne,
Wake up to my mares, I fall in love with the Sun.
Pages that are blank, everything do they reveal,
When the thoughts burn, injuries come to heal.
I want a way out, part of me stays,
Two-faced I am, half of me slays.
My May begins in March, dies in August.
The other half – blood, love and lust.
Follow my instincts? Unlikely I am to please,
Toe the line? Too low to appease.
Considerations do adhere, evil does thrive,
I don’t belong here, that is why I must survive.
Gearing up my back, readying my fists,
Battling rains, and clearing mists.
I question my methods, the Sword I trust,
Come what may, turning them to dust.
In the name of survival, I thrust.
In the name of survival, I trust.

-Shirish Sharma, 1st year

Please kiss me goodbye

I’m tired of waiting,

It does me no good;

I’m all ready for hiring

I’m way above the hood.

I’ve come out after a long time,

Please let me leave;

Your wishes are no longer mine

Space between us has cleaved.

You can be unfaithful now

You can do anything you want;

Just because you still bow

I’m still not yours for grant.

It’s your choice to stay

But I’d rather you don’t;

I want you far, far away

Leave you a choice? No, I won’t.

Please kiss me goodbye

It’s the easiest thing;

No need for drama, no need to cry

Walk away, for I’m not waiting.

-Kanika, 3rd year

A pleasant surprise

The sun only rose to pierce through my eyes. I woke up, reluctantly, with a feeling of anxiety, a familiar feeling I had two years back. Was I heading towards another rat race? The question was at the back of my mind throughout that week. 

This perception of mine came from the two years I spent in those cramped up coaching classes, surrounded by fat specs and swollen eyes .Struggling to feed their brains with what seemed to me like useless knowledge with no practical application. Obviously there wasn’t a room for socializing. Not a surprise, I expected the same from college.

The anxiety gave way to laziness. "Come quick, you don’t even want to miss a single minute of that orientation!" screamed my mom - she had no idea. I threw myself at the back seat of the car as we started off towards the much celebrated "PEC".

Another frightening thought came to my mind on our way. I wasn’t going to stay at home; I was going to live in a cubicle now. Loneliness scared me the most  Most of my past two years were spent in a minimally socializing routine , but there were always parents and grandparents - not even them anymore .I wasn’t used to being alone before the 11th grade , I am a defence kid !.  I am sure it wasn’t just me getting all these jitters. The very foundation of the education system in India is rat race and stampede. It compels many to be isolated socially and, of course, depression.

The orientation was over and all that I had expected earlier was, thankfully, contradicted. It wasn’t about academics, cgpa, the competitive world, etc. It was actually refreshing. The clubs and societies actually existed, even better, they are not all technical and after interacting with the crowd, the anxiety, as if magically, vanished. Hostel wasn’t going to be lonely, that's for sure. 

Sure it is too soon to judge the entire college life in two days but now I know it's definitely not a coaching institute. I now have gathered enough courage to carry on.  

Now I know what I have to look forward to.

 -Tarun, 1st year

Perfect Flaw

She sits in the corner

She sometimes does cry in her sleep

She waits for the night to fall

But no one seems to see

Differs in her ways of love

They don't let her smile again

She sings in the silent dark

To walk her through restrain

She won't give a sigh out

She won't let you see the tears

Lost into exasperations

Their joy is all she fears

The way they look

Down at her chest

Smile and giggle

As yearns in disgust

She waits for eyes to pass away

As she looks down her ground starts to sway

She wants a pleasant dream in the day

But she fears to sleep after what all they say

Loud though she has always been

For what all our eyes have seen

She reaches the depths inside of her

Which lets a bleeding sigh usher

She needs no pills.

Yet she loves the high

It gives her

What they all deny

She pleases their eye

For what they want to look

But complains is all

That she ever took

So she runs away

To a place she might find

To change what

She left behind

Someday she waits to wake and see

How beautiful inside she might be

She waits for someone to make her believe

For her the world he would leave

So she sits in the corner again

Stares into the darkness, eyes start to rain

But she won't break

She will fight them off

She won't stop

She knows what it'll take

She's heard them tell

She's heard them yell

She's taken the weight

What they compel

What she waits to know

What she waits to find

To find silence

Deep in her mind

Though not sure

After what she saw

But what she doesn’t know

She's a perfect flaw.

-Chaitanya Narula, 2nd year