Definitive Foreigner, The - Foreigner > Reviews > The Definitive foreigner

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Fantastic selection
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Have foreigner really being performing for over 25 years? Yes, they have. Foreigner has arguably provided some of the best music of the past 25 years.

No matter what you were doing, there was probably a Foreigner song being played in the background. Or even the foreground.

The tracks on the CD are:

As Cold As Ice
Waiting for a Girl Like You
I Want to Know What Love Is
That was Yesterday
Urgent
Say You Will
Double Vision
Blue Morning, Blue Day
Heart Turns to Stone
Feels Like the First Time
Long, Long Way From Home
I Don't Want to Live Without You
Starrider
Whire Lie
Break It Up
Hot Blooded
Dirty White Boy
Down on Love
Juke Box Hero
Urgent

The latter track was recorded live at the BBC and is included as a special bonus track for the CD.

The booklet that comes with the CD is very well written and also well researched, too. It reminds me of the information booklets that you used to get with LPs back in the good old days of Hi Fis and dodgy needles. Did I say good old days?!

It reveals that Mick Jones, the powerhouse behind Foreigner, was a guitarist in an instrumental group called Nero and the Gladiators. After some gigging in France with the group, Mick had stayed behind in France to become involved with the legendary French rock and roller Johnny Haliday and his singer-wife, Sylvie Vartan.

Eventfully he became Johnny's musical director. So Foreigner cannot be dismissed as a nothing more than a slick, soulless band of poseurs.

As you would expect, the music is as good as ever, and the CD cleverly shows the many shades of Foreigner. But Foreigner excels at one thing above all else. Being a band that lovingly crafts fantastic rock ballads and then lovingly performs them. And if by chance some of them are seen as anthemic tunes that define a moment in history, or in music or in the social ethos, well, tel est la vie, as Johnny Haliday might have said

If you are a Foreigner fan you might need this for your collection. And if you are not a Foreigner fan, you definitely need this for your collection.

Foreigner are:
Mick Jones
Lou Gramm
Ian McDonald
Al Greenwood
Ed Cagliardi
Dennis Elliott
Rick Wills
Bruce Turgon
Jeff Jacobs.

There are other musicians credited for the CD.

The cost is about £10.00, though will vary.