{"id":41259,"date":"2008-12-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/foreign-affair\/"},"modified":"2008-12-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-13T00:00:00","slug":"foreign-affair","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/foreign-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fair to say that by 1989, Tina Turner was on one hell of a roll. The release of her seventh solo album Foreign Affair <\/i>in September of that year capped off a remarkable decade for the rock legend. Her previous release (the lackluster Break Every Rule<\/i>) spawned the incredible, record-breaking world tour that culminated in Turner writing herself into the record books with the largest paying crowd for a solo performer ever after 182,000 Brazilians packed the Maracana football stadium.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Upon the completion of the tour, Turner spoke of plans to return to Hollywood<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and hopefully continue her acting career with more action-based roles. Many roles were offered but none (not surprisingly) fit with Turner\u2019s ambitions of becoming an action heroine. So with her 50th birthday approaching, it was somewhat of a surprise announcement that a \u201cfarewell\u201d European-only tour would accompany the new album.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Whether the plans to retire were genuine or not, the following decade would prove to be just as rewarding and the tours just as long. The Foreign Affair Tour played to more than four million people with 121 shows staged in six months, breaking another record (surpassing her old buddies the Stones) when it became the most successful European tour in history. What made the tour so great was the inclusion of many new songs from the Foreign Affair <\/i>album, which complemented her older stuff and gave her band some great bluesy rock to sink their fangs into.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album kicks off with one of Turner\u2019s sexiest moments ever recorded, \u201cSteamy Windows,\u201d written by Tony Joe White. It\u2019s a great swampy blues\/rock song that finds Turner lamenting those wild nights of teenage lust (\u201cRadio blasting in the front seat \/ Turning out the music fine \/ And we were snuggled up in the back seat \/ Making up for lost time\u201d). It charted well and quickly became a Turner classic after it was used to open the shows through the tour.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Best\u201d (written by Mark Chapman and Holly Knight) was released the previous year by Welsh belter Bonnie Tyler to little acclaim. When Turner heard the song, she instantly knew what to do with it and insisted on recording it for the album, much to the bewilderment of her producers. But Turner heard the potential to finally have an anthem of her own fit for the stadium crowds she was now accustomed to playing for.\u00a0 After reworking the arrangement with the band, Turner got the result she wanted.\u00a0 It\u2019s every bit the sing-along anthem she wished it to be, and after becoming a massive worldwide hit, it has been a constant inclusion on each of her successive tours.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cUndercover Agent For The Blues\u201d (again penned by White) is a classic moment for Turner and proof that her roots are still very much steeped in the blues. The easy groove is complimented by White\u2019s guitar and Turner\u2019s awesome performance as she shrieks with delight at her lover\u2019s advances, \u201cHe was blinded by the blackness of my long silk stocking \/ I was rocking with an optical illusion \/ And this ain\u2019t how I thought it\u2019d be \/ He just kept on keeping me in a state of total confusion.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cBe Tender With Me Baby\u201d is the most soulful rock ballad Turner has ever recorded, and her desperate pleading rather than singing is enough to induce goose bumps. \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Lose You\u201d was the album\u2019s other hit single (especially in Europe<\/st1:place>), and when performed alongside \u201cWhat\u2019s Love Got To Do With It\u201d during the shows, it gave Turner a chance to catch her breath. \u201cAsk Me How I Feel\u201d is a great mid-tempo rocker and given a rousing performance from Turner, became another crowd pleaser.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The other standout here is the title track, which is another White composition and closes out the album superbly. Just why Turner never collaborated with White again for an album is a mystery, being as they make such great music together.\u00a0 White\u2019s lyrics and bluesy arrangements are the perfect fold for Turner\u2019s raspy, sultry delivery.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Produced mainly by the late Dan Hartman, the album is not void of filler.\u00a0 \u201cYou Know Who (Is Doing You Know What),\u201d \u201cYou Can\u2019t Stop Me Loving You,\u201d and \u201cNot Enough Romance\u201d are the usual kind of pop songs that littered most adult contemporary albums in the \u201880s, but they are given some edge here due to Turner\u2019s voice and Hartman\u2019s punchy arrangements. \u201cFallin\u2019 Like Rain\u201d fares better due to the layered vocals and catchy chorus. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Foreign Affair <\/i>would become Turner\u2019s third consecutive release to sell in excess of ten million copies worldwide. Its success helped firmly cement Turner\u2019s status not only as legendary performer but as a mega-selling recording artist also, and it remains one of her most enjoyable and consistent records to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":29660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7487],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41259","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tina-turner","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41259"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}