Foreigner

4

An excellent album, and the end of an era

Review Score:

(10/10)
4 (1981.) Foreigner's fourth album.

A good deal of classic rock artists failed to survive the transition between the seventies and the eighties, due to the changing rock music trends, and several of those who did survive were pretty much ruined. Fortunately, Foreigner managed to survive into the new decade pretty well. Mick Jones and Lou Gramm weren't ready to stop rocking. Foreigner was now down to four members, and they were recording their fourth album, so what better name to call their album than 4? It came out in 1981. Read on for my review.

This album is one of Foreigner's most popular ones, and it's also one of their best. To put it simply, this album deserves all of the positive feedback that fans give it. The band even recruited some guest musicians to play on the album, including saxophone player Junior Walker, and even Thomas Dolby (best known for his lone eighties hit, She Blinded Me With Science.)Three fairly large hits from the band came from this album, including the rock anthem Juke Box Hero, the legendary rocker Urgent, and the slow-paced love song Waiting For A Girl Like You. These songs are all excellent, and among the band's finest works. But, like with any Foreigner album, you have to look deeper than the hits to experience the true mastery that the band displays on the album. The opener, Night Life, is classic hard rock at its very best. Why didn't it become a bigger hit? Another severely underrated rocker is Woman In Black. Girl On The Moon and Don't Let Go close out the album, and they are other songs that never got the proper credit. Through and through, 4 is an album of big hits and underrated masterpieces alike.

All four of the classic four Foreigner albums were recently remastered and rereleased by Rhino Records, along with expanded liner notes and bonus tracks. The expanded liner notes and improved sound quality are very nice, but the band's choice of bonus tracks on these reissues was questionable. On this reissue, you get two "nearly unplugged" versions of two songs from the album. It sounds cool, but these were recorded (approximately) fifteen years after the album was released! If you're gonna put bonus tracks on an album, make sure they're from the same era as the album! Still, this is a small flaw, and doesn't change my feelings for the album itself.

4 is one of Foreigner's greatest triumphs - Do I really need to say anything else about it? I don't think so. To put it simply, if you're a fan of classic rock, this album is just waiting to be added to your collection. Foreigner was one of the greatest of the classic rock bands, and this album proves it excellently.

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