Ah, Foreigner, so unfairly maligned over here in the UK as a ballads band; they were so much more than that, especially back in ye olde days. The run of albums from their self titled debut in 1977, right through to their magnificent fourth album, 4, contained some of the finest melodic rock songs you are ever likely to hear, as well as some of the strangest. Not that that stopped them selling gazillions of records at the same time.
A new version of Foreigner has been doing the live rounds over the past few years, with founder Mick Jones the only classic member left. This 32 track, double best of CD probably contains all the Foreigner you'll ever need. Thankfully, it's in chronological order, so you can skip the less than good years when they arrive. Kicking off with five tracks from their debut album, including their debut hit single "Feels Like The First Time", this version of Foreigner was by far the most interesting.
With ex King Crimson man Ian McDonald in the lineup alongside former Spooky Tooth man Jones, they had an experimental edge to their classic rock fare. "Long, Long Way From Home" is still an utterly mad rhythmic affair with bubbling keyboards and staccato brass that still managed to get into the Top 20 US singles chart. And don't start me on "Starrider", a flute driven song that, delightfully, comes across as a refugee from a Uriah Heep session.
Five million sales later, and the format remained untampered with, as Double Vision had even better sales. However, songwise, it wasn't on a par with the debut, despite songs like the hits "Blue Morning, Blue Day" and "'Hot Blooded", both of which are here. Head Games was an album I had to hide away as a teenager, thanks to its delightful cover. The music continued the slide, despite five million sales, with only the title track and "Dirty White Boy" really standing the test of time. Mick Jones obviously realized something had to go, and that something was keyboardist Al Greenwood and co-founder Ian McDonald, who were sacked in a melodic rock putsch, with Jones and vocalist Lou Gramm seizing control.
And then came 4, their number one U.S. album; the high point of their career, and an album that contains two near perfect songs in the shape of "Night Life" and "Juke Box Hero". The five tracks culled for this compilation take us to the end of Disc 1 with "Waiting for a Girl Like You," before Disc 2 commences with "I Want to Know What Love Is". It seems like a symbolic sign that the glory days were over for Foreigner, as they started to mutate into just another band. Agent Provocateur, their concept album, just wasn't very good, with Jones and Gramm starting to drift apart. The four tracks on offer here, are pointers towards the career nadir that was Inside Information, an album that heralded the end of classic Foreigner.
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