Even now, this feels like the first time.
So strong is the impact
Foreigner made with their debut album on me and a million more rock fans all those years ago.
And such is the strength of the band's back catalogue that they've released more compilations than most bands have studio albums.
32 tracks here, including 3 live tracks recorded at last year's Headbanger festival in Germany, plus 1 brand new track, all 4 with Kelly Hansen on vocals. More on these later.
Naturally, the other 28 are selected from a substantial body of work, with the earlier albums - each showing a razor edged sharpness and a clear eyed focus in writing and delivery - giving up more tracks than later releases.
'Hot Blooded', 'Cold As Ice', 'Dirty White Boy' and
'Head Games' are all still as powerful, as energetic as they were then - forces of nature, combining the elemental with the melodic, creating an instantly recognisable sound that the passage of time has never diminished.
The band's numero uno, Mick Jones, songwriter extraordinaire, always chose well when it came to the selection of producer. Keith Olsen, Roy Thomas Baker, John 'Mutt' Lange, Frank Filipetti, Alex Sadkin and Mike Stone have all played their part in carving out a sizeable piece of history for this legendary band.
The only real blip on
Foreigner's track record was the
'Unusual Heat' album (1991), with Johnny Edwards on vocals. Producer Terry Thomas's sanitised sonics served only to emasculate the band's macho sound, much as they did for Tesla's 'Bust A Nut'.
But all things are relative, and that's but a slight blemish on an otherwise perfect complexion.
Arguably, the band peaked with 1984's archetypal love ballad, taken from the 'Agent Provocateur' album,
'I Want To Know What Love Is'. The song's near perfect combination of heartfelt lyrics and memorable melody, given extra weight by a dramatic Gospel choir, turned the song into a worldwide number one single. Consequently transforming
Foreigner into a household name.
After that , the band, or at least Mick Jones and vocalist and co-songwriter, Lou Gramm began their slide down the slippery slope of musical differences.
1987's
'Inside Information' was patchy, but yielded the marvellous '
Say You Will', to this day my favourite
Foreigner track.
But that was then. Of that band, today only Jones remains, surrounding himself with consummate musicians like Tom Gimbel, Jason Bonham and vocalist Kelly (Hurricane) Hansen.
One new track -
'Too Late' - from this new formation may not be enough to tempt anyone other than obssessives into buying, but it's infuriatingly addictive. It maybe doesn't provide a massive hit on first listen, but after a few spins you'll be mainlining on a regular basis.
That same lineup has been touring this last few years, and the last 3 tracks on Disc 2 captures them live on stage last year, with
'Say You Will'and '
Starrider' both featuring. But the piece de resistance is a fabulous, rousing combination of 2 huge rock tracks. A marriage of the band's own melodic monster '
Juke Box Hero' and the mighty Led Zeppelin's
'Whole Lotta Love' close the album in a no holds barred, nothing-could-follow-that manner.
If nothing else, it shows you that even
Foreigner, a multi million selling band in its own right has its very own juke box heroes.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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