Foreigner - 4 (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by the 2002 reissue CD with 2 bonus tracks.

I was having lunch with a friend this week when he asked me what music I listened to as a teen. I told him when I started high school, I listened to the all the stuff you would expect from a white, male teenager of the time: Styx, AC/DC, Journey, Stones, Cars, etc. I didn't tell him about my Manilow or Maynard albums, probably because that didn't easily fit into the narrative I was weaving, but this Foreigner album would certainly fit into that group. And did. This album, along with Journey's Escape, got the majority of playing time in cars I was in as me and my friends cruised the strip from the Dairy Queen to the movie theater in my little, rural town.

Mutt Lange sure produced some great rock albums back in the early '80s. Great ear for riffs and those immediately recognizable background choruses. And all that's here in this release. I bought this album back in '82 and I must have listened to the crap out of it because when I finally bought this CD I remembered every riff and solo. And I'd forgotten what a hook-filled collection of pop-rock tunes it is. Admittedly, it may be nostalgia talking here, but I don't really care - just give me some hooks!

Here's a recent article from Ultimate Classic Rock concerning Mutt's involvement and why Thomas Dolby should have gotten a writing credit for Urgent: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/foreigner-urgent/

Press of the time:

• High Fidelity: "a supremely well-crafted hard-rock album that speaks to the commonplace"
• CashBox: "songs like 'Urgent,' 'I'm Gonna Win' and 'Luanne' are instant FM rock classics"
• Record World: "a fresh LP that will leave their multi-platinum streak unbroken"
• Rolling Stone (★★): "utter mediocrity"
• Billboard: "might eventually develop into a classic"
• Musician: "Give me a hash pipe and a smokin' Trans Am with big speakers and I could listen to both sides in a row"

I know the Musician magazine critic wrote that comment as a sarcastic putdown, but wouldn't a smokin' Trans Am go good about now?

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #1
• Billboard Rock Albums: #1
• CashBox: #1
• Rolling Stone: #1

That's a lot of chart-topping - this thing was huge. Not Atari video game huge, mind you, but definitely the group's best and most-successful album.

Tracks: I dig all the singles: Urgent (peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100), Waiting For A Girl Like You (#2), Juke Box Hero (#26), Break it Up (#26), and Luanne (#75). Yes, they released half the album as singles and probably could have released Night Life and/or Girl On The Moon as singles, as well. The track that sounds most like previous Foreigner releases is Break It Up, while the more power-poppish Luanne makes it apparent the group was definitely listening to contemporaneous new wave bands. Thanks to Thomas Dolby and Junior Walker, Urgent sounds unlike anything the band released before or after. The only track on the album that feels like filler to me is Woman In Black. Waiting For A Girl Like You often gets called a power ballad and compared to Journey's Open Arms and I disagree with both of those opinions. First, the tempo is a bit fast for a ballad which made it an unlikely choice for a slow dance and secondly, if we're going to compare it to a Journey track, let's go with Who's Crying Now, which is much closer in terms of textures, chord progressions, and time signature.

Bonus tracks: Both labelled "nearly unplugged," we're treated to newer versions of Juke Box Hero and Waiting For A Girl Like You recorded at Mick Jones' home studio in 1999. Enjoyable, but not essential.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: In the early months of 1982, I took the driving portion of my drivers education program. The students were two female classmates and myself with a local junior high coach as our instructor. At some point during the hours I rode in the back of the drivers ed car with one of the girls (a member of the school's dance team I'll call Tonya), she asked me if I'd heard the song Juke Box Hero. The song had recently been released as a single and while Tonya was a big fan, I had yet to hear it. Plus, to my juvenile mind, any song with the words "juke box" in the title must be a country song, right? So when Tonya asked if I had heard the song, I replied, "I don't listen to much country music." Tonya just rolled her eyes at me (not an uncommon occurrence) and told me it was a rock song, not a country song. I finally heard the song, liked it, bought the tape. After many hours in close proximity that spring, I probably should have asked out Tonya, but I was crushing hard on a girl in my Algebra II class at the time, so the thought of dating Tonya foolishly never crossed my mind. And nothing ever happened with Algebra Girl, either.

Also, I had a friend in high school who claimed he knew someone who worked at The Summit box office and could get us free tickets to shows. I told him to set us up with some tics to the Foreigner show in October '81. It didn't happen, of course, because I doubt he really knew anybody that worked at the Summit. Interestingly though, one girl (a twirler in the school band) who was normally too good to speak to me suddenly was my best friend when she thought I was getting those tickets. Not surprisingly, when the tics didn't materialize, she never spoke to me again.

So I guess there's a correlation between this album and my lack of success with the ladies in high school? If only I'd had a smokin' Trans Am.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Complete Greatest Hits (2002)