I’ve been listening to two new albums recently, Foo Fighters “Wasting Light” and Sum 41 “Screaming Bloody Murder”, both I’ve grown to love the more I listen to them.

These days it’s hard to find a good rock album. I’ve been a casual fan of Foo Fighters, listening almost strickly to their singles over the years. Looking for something new to listen to, I popped this in without hearing anything about it or from it. Dave Grohl has to be one of the best musicians working today. Look at his career, his resume is ridiculous. I’ve become a huge fan of Wasting Light, the only track I don’t like is “Dear Rosemary”, the other 10 are pretty brilliant. It’s a fantastic car album, just a high energy and groovy album from front to back. Dave has a fantastic singing range, the drums are terrific and the guitar work is really impressive too. The album was recorded at Grohl’s house using the good old analog way (like Korn did with their latest) which gives it a warm and live feel. They recently played Saturday Night Live and completely killed, sounded just like the album. “Walk” is my favorite track, which they also did on SNL, totally worth tracking down and watching.

Sum 41 is a love ’em or hate ’em band. These guys get shit on all the time but I think they have some serious talent. “Mature” has never been a word for this band, but they pretty much hit it big when they were kids. I love 2005’s “Chuck”; it’s just a blistering album. They kinda shed the punk overtones and went more metal/rock and it totally worked. 2007’s “Underclass Hero” on the other hand sucked eggs. I have no idea what happend but it bored me to death and I swear they reused riffs and melodies from their earlier work. “Screaming Bloody Murder” is a really eclectic album. Ballads, acoustic, piano, thundering bass and drums, some straight up shredding guitar work are all on this album. Some work better than others, but I gotta say I like the whole album. People seem to freak out when a band slows things down, but I don’t mind that (“Crash” is a good example). I don’t think albums need to follow a straight path, variety and time changes keep things interesting. As long as there is a real energy behind a song, it works. This sounds like a very personal album for Deryck Whibley, something I appreciate. Right after “Crash” is the energetic “Blood In My Eyes”. There’s a nice transition between the songs as “Crash” is a ballad and”Blood” doesn’t really pick up until about 30 seconds with a terrific guitar riff. I gotta say, I love Steve Jocz on drums, he’s a monster (new guitarist Tom Thacker sounds like a great match for Whibley as well, great stuff). These guys can really throw down a jam that can quickly morph into a groove and then back into a jam (“Sick of Everyone” and “Happiness Machine” which is my favorite). They take a lot of inspiration from others (Green Day, but I think Sum 41 is better than them, less predictable).

Check ’em out.