Foreigner

Unusual Heat

Lou, You Are Greatly Missed

Review Score:

(4/10)
After the tour for Foreigner's 1987 album, "Inside Information" was finished, lead singer Lou Gramm, dissatisfied with the band's musical direction--he wanted more rock and less pop gloss--left the band for a solo career. They replaced him with a younger singer named Johnny Edwards, and recorded 1991's "Unusual Heat." It was the beginning of the end for Foreigner, as the album was a commercial disappointment, and yielded no hits. It can also be argued that "Unusual Heat" is also an artistic disappointment. While the hat must be tipped to guitarist Mick Jones, bassist Rick Wills & drummer Dennis Elliott for being very brave in carrying on without their star frontman, the resulting album just didn't work. While Johnny Edwards is certainly a good rock singer, he just can't duplicate the unique, powerful pipes of Gramm, nor Gramm's exceptional songwriting skills. As for the album's batch of tunes, only the excellent power ballad "Safe In My Heart"--the only tune solely written by Mick Jones without Edwards' input--smacks of the classic Foreigner sound. The rest of "Unusual Heat" is surprisingly generic, run-of-the-mill guitar rock, with none of the band's previous flare for memorable hooks & melody. Sure, the guys still play mean instruments, but the Foreigner magic of old just isn't there. I can't even imagine Lou Gramm singing this kind of stuff.It's not that I'm not open to a Lou Gramm-less Foreigner. Furthermore, there are some bands that CAN survive a major lead singer change & continue to thrive. Foreigner label mates AC/DC & Genesis both proved that it can be done. But as "Unusual Heat" clearly shows, Foreigner *needed* Lou Gramm. Thank goodness, then, that Lou wisely returned to the band for their next--and possibly final--album, 1995's "Mr. Moonlight." "Unusual Heat" is only a pale shadow of what this talented rock band is truly capable of, and is for completists only.

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