FOREIGNER:FOREIGNER ALBUM REVIEW

[RJhog]

1. Feels Like The First Time...The first of three pretty big hits off of this album. It's definitely a classic. Lou Gramm's vocals are excellent. It's a pretty straight forward and simple song. Sometimes simple is the best...10/10

2. Cold As Ice...Love the piano intro to this song. The synthesizer works very well also. Again, it's quite simple, but it works. I like the breakdown towards the end and the backing vocals there. Nothing earth shattering about the lyrics...9/10

3. Starrider...Oh man, this is a friggin' cool song. Celestial (I'll pilfer a word from the lyrics) would definitely be a great word to describe it. It makes me feel like I'm in outer space floating around. Great drum fills. And I must say I absolutely love the lead guitar solo. What a gem...10/10

4. Headknocker...What a great rock song. Any song that mentions James Dean and Smith & Wesson can't be bad. I like the way you can hear totally different rhythm guitars in the two different headphones. Good guitar leads also...10/10

5. The Damage Is Done...My all-time favorite Foreigner song. Keyboard intro. Lou Gramm's vocals and the lyrics to this song just knock me out. Beautiful guitar work, acoustic and lead as well. Lou shows some vocal range at the end of the song. Do yourself a favor if you haven't heard this and check it out...10/10

6. Long, Long Way From Home...Wow, three 10's already. No way we can get 4 in a row can we? Well, I think it's close. The pace picks back up nicely on this one. Instead of a lead guitar, we get a sax. I think it's a very good song, but not quite a ten...9/10

7. Woman Oh Woman...Another slower paced song. It's mostly acoustic based with some keyboard work and a decent lead guitar solo. I don't think it's great, but it's better than average...8/10

8. At War With The World...This is probably the heaviest song on the album. Nice riffage at the start. It still has a lot of synthesizer work. Good guitar work at the end. I would say overall, an average song...7.5/10

9. Fool For You Anyway...Another slower song. I really like this one. It's about as smooth as they come. Lou shines vocally again on this song. I really like the guitar picking, electric and acoustic in it. Very good song...9/10

10. I Need You...This song starts with a fade in. It has a very confused sounding start. Too much going on or something. It does feature some really nice lead guitar work. I like the chorus, and because of that and the lead guitar work, I'd say it's slightly above average...8/10

This album is 32 years old. And it still sounds great. Along with three big hits, it has at least four hidden gems. That's why I love this album. It's so easy to listen to from start to finish. And to top that off, it's Foreigner's debut, one of the best all-time. I can't really think of any big cons from this record. Maybe the artwork, but I've certainly seen worse. I highly recommend this album to anyone who doesn't already have it.

I have one new feature. I'm gonna try to include an album's certification, hopefully straight from the RIAA website.

Hidden Gems

Starrider
Headknocker
The Damage Is Done
Fool For You Anyway

Songs for my compilation:

Feels Like The First Time
Cold As Ice
Starrider
Headknocker
The Damage Is Done
Long, Long Way From Home
Fool For You Anyway

RIAA Certification: 5X Platinum as of 2000

[Scott]

Great timing as Foreigner releases their new studio effort today. This and Van Halens first are forever intertwined to me since my brother bought them both the same day. So I first listened to VH and Foreigner for the first time on the same day back to back.

Damage is Done is far and away the best track here.

The remastered version contains 4 bonus tracks. Demo versions of Feels Like the First Time featuring an acoustic lead in, Woman Oh Woman, At War With the World featuring a longer intro, and one unreleased song titled Take Me to Your Leader. I think the latter song would have been a better inclusion in the final product versus I Need You, but stylistically I can see why it was not.

Love the new feature!!!! Thanks again

[RJhog]

Scott, this is good to hear. I thought I might be the only person who thought The Damage Is Done is such a great song.

[Jon]

Weird, I'm actually started listening to this in the car today on the way home from work. I saw them at a free concert outside the Ren Cen in Detroit last year, everyone was screaming for "Starrider" which they did play. Great song, but don't remember it ever being that popular.

[Gordon Williams]

I agree! "Starrider" is a great tune...who sings it? It doesn't sound like Lou Gramm on vocals for this song.

[Jon]

Mick Jones sings the lead, you can also hear Lou Gramm in some parts. When I was listening to that today, I forgot that Gramm did not sing lead. Jones also sings lead on "Woman Oh Woman" I believe.