One-time AOR kings Foreigner\u2019s trajectory after their chart-topping 1981 album 4<\/i> looks like a Winter Olympics downhill course: steep and treacherous. <\/p>\n
First came the \u201980s-production house of horrors that was 1984\u2019s Agent Provocateur<\/i>, complete with the songwriting controversy that wrecked the partnership between guitarist-bandleader Mick Jones and lead vocalist Lou Gramm. Next was 1987\u2019s Inside Information<\/i>, the last gasp from the lineup that made 4<\/i>\u2014also featuring Rick Wills (bass) and Dennis Elliott (drums)\u2014and Gramm\u2019s last with the band for eight years.<\/p>\n
Inside Information<\/i> is the sound of a group plowing headlong into a snowbank. Whatever remaining droplets of songwriting mojo Gramm and Jones had squeezed out on the mostly dull Agent Provocateur<\/i> were gone by the time they entered the studio for this disc. Both men were distracted and disinterested; Gramm\u2019s first solo album Ready Or Not <\/i>had come out ten months before, with both his second solo disc and Jones\u2019 lone solo outing to follow in 1989. As a result, Inside Information<\/i> sounded like exactly what it was: an album\u2019s worth of uninspired filler, with the added bonus of being dipped in subzero \u201980s production.<\/p>\n
The best pair from this bad lot arrive near the front. Opener \u201cHeart Turns to Stone\u201d features pumping guitar and bass in pitched battle with the frostiest synths this side of the Arctic Circle, as Gramm pleads with yet another evil woman who\u2019s done him wrong (these guys have issues<\/i>\u2026!). Cash Box<\/i> called this hooky yet formulaic single \u201ccorporate rock,\u201d and they weren\u2019t wrong. Best track and third single \u201cSay You Will\u201d is a melodic rocker with pulsing hooks and an insistent bass line; if the synths don\u2019t give you frostbite, you might listen long enough to realize the lyric wouldn\u2019t fill the back of a napkin.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all downhill from there. Second single \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Live Without You\u201d is a paint-by-numbers ballad that could serve as the Wikipedia illustration for \u201cThe Law of Diminishing Returns.\u201d Back in 1981, \u201cWaiting For A Girl Like You\u201d was interesting because it represented a change of pace from the group\u2019s typical macho arena schlock. Its 1984 sequel \u201cI Want To Know What Love Is\u201d followed a similar template but, despite Gramm\u2019s strong lead vocal, broke no new ground. The third edition of Yearning Power Ballad Demanded By Our Label finds the entire band sounding bored to tears; the fact this track hit #1 on Billboard\u2019s Adult Contemporary chart just illustrates how singles from established bands often perform based more on nostalgia than substance.<\/p>\n
The rest of this album struggles to clear the bar of disposable filler; I can\u2019t imagine a single one of the remaining tracks making the cut for one of the band\u2019s early albums. \u201cCan\u2019t Wait\u201d is slumbery synth-pop until it hits its overwrought chorus; \u201cCounting Every Minute\u201d is an utterly predictable thumper with an eyeroll-inducing lyric (\u201cCome and get it while it\u2019s hot\u201d); and the title track is that Foreigner specialty, a song that\u2019s urgent for no detectable reason, and ends up feeling like just another pose.<\/p>\n
The last four cuts represent the dregs of the dregs. \u201cThe Beat Of My Heart\u201d features a stylish Spanish guitar intro played by guest Hugh McCracken before erupting into an over-produced pile of Bluster Rock whose lyric makes \u201cJuke Box Hero\u201d feel like Shakespeare. \u201cFace To Face\u201d is a dreadful melange of frosty synths, gated drums and cheeseball lyrics. The one song in the history of the group to be credited to all of its members at the time, \u201cOut Of The Blue\u201d is a plodding mid-tempo snoozer whose moderately clever stutter-stepping riff isn\u2019t enough to rescue it from generic AOR cheese. Closing rocker \u201cA Night to Remember\u201d achieves decent momentum before sinking under the weight of a deeply unfortunate lyric: \u201cI want drums like thunder \/ Gimme guitars that scream \/ One woman who can rock me \/ Yeah, my little love machine.\u201d<\/p>\n