Few bands as popular as the Foo Fighters go 16 years before having an album hit #1 on Billboard's Top 200 for the first time, but that's what Wasting Light has done, and it's easy to hear why. The opening minute of the album is one hell of an opening salvo, with Grohl screaming, "These are my famous last words," with all the force of an atomic blast.

From thunderous lead single "Rope" to the blitzkrieg of balls-out rocker "White Limo," the Foos sweep you away in a flood of sound, the guitars roaring, while the drums bowl you over. And even on slow-boiling rockers such as "Arlandria," Grohl proves you don't have to play at the speed of light to give your rock ’n’ roll some white-hot intensity.

Grohl is still one of the most charismatic and talented rock singers of this generation, alternating between throat-blistering abrasiveness and solid melodies with practiced precision. Grohl, Pat Smear, and Chris Shiflett blast the speakers out with their riffs, and drummer Taylor Hawkins fires off one missile after another with the vigor and precision of a marksman at a shooting range. Wasting Light clicks on all cylinders.

Album: Wasting Light (2011)

Artist: Foo Fighters

Label: RCA Records

Songs: (1) Bridge Burning (2) Rope (3) Dear Rosemary (4) White Limo (5) Arlandria (6) These Days (7) Back & Forth (8) A Matter of Time (9) Miss the Misery (10) I Should Have Known (11) Walk