The second Foo Fighters compilation arrives 13 years after the first, after the group racked up four additional Top Ten albums. Wasting Light, Sonic Highways, Concrete and Gold, and Medicine at Midnight provide a fair chunk of material on Essential Foo Fighters -- "These Days," "Rope," "Walk, "The Sky Is a Neighborhood," "Waiting on a War," "Making a Fire" -- added to the alt-rock perennials that were also on 2009's Greatest Hits. Nearly all of Greatest Hits is here: of the 13 core songs there -- a batch that includes "Everlong," "Monkey Wrench," "My Hero," "Big Me," "Best of You," "This Is a Call," "Learn to Fly" -- only "Skin and Bones" didn't make the cut here, with the acoustic version of "Everlong" being the only one of the two bonus tracks carried forward. The end result is that Essential Foo Fighters winds up as a stronger comp than its predecessor, with its nonchronological sequencing helping to highlight the consistency of their catalog. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine