But there is far too little point of view to make any of it commanding." Hartford Courant critic Henry McNulty said "There's something good beginning here, and the sooner you get in on it the better." Annison Star reviewer Mike Stamler felt that most of the songs were "sanforized, sanitized and safely sterilized into three basic chords" with "immature lyrics," leaving little variety on the album, and suggested that more instrumental solos would have been beneficial. Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn summed up his contemporary review of Foreigner saying "The production work is crisp, the melodies are serviceable and the vocals are eager. The first attempt at mixing the album was done at Sarm Studios, London, but as they were dissatisfied with the result, the album was re-mixed at Atlantic Recording Studios by Jones, McDonald and Jimmy Douglass. I always like to involved people and get a team spirit going, which is what we did here. Both Ian and I worked closely on the way the album sounded. I had already gotten a lot of experience of working in studios, through collaborating with some top producers like Glyn Johns. John and I are down as the sole producers. I can show you my contract for the album. Typical of musicians, they wanted their names included, but they had nothing to do with what happened on the production side, although later on they remixed the album without John and me. According to Lyons:Īctually, Mick and Ian did very little on the production side. There is some disagreement about the roles that Jones and McDonald played in producing the album. Instead, Sarm Studios owners Gary Lyons, who had worked as an engineer on several Queen albums that Baker produced, and John Sinclair served as producers along with Jones and McDonald. Jones had wanted Roy Thomas Baker to produce the album, but he was not available. But I deserved a lot more of the credit than I was given. He gave me a look that said he wasn’t happy with the idea, and he reluctantly agreed. And even with Long, Long Way From Home I remember telling Mick that I wanted to have a share of the writing, because of all I’d put in to making it happen, especially on the vocal arrangements. I should have had co-writing credits on a lot more than just one song. And I’m still bitter about the way I was treated by some people connected to the band. I had a lot to do with the development of the songs. McDonald claimed that although he received a writing credit only on "Long, Long Way from Home" he had a significant role in writing several of the other songs on the album. After the formation of the band, Gramm and Jones worked on several other songs, including "Long, Long Way from Home" (along with Ian McDonald), "Cold as Ice" and "I Need You". Lead singer Lou Gramm sang three of them – "Feels Like the First Time", "Woman, Oh Woman" and "At War with the World" in his audition to form the band. Jones had written several songs that wound up on Foreigner prior to the formation of the band. It also features album tracks such as "Headknocker" and "Starrider", the latter of which features a rare lead vocal from lead guitarist and co-founder Mick Jones. It spun off three hit singles, " Feels Like the First Time", " Cold as Ice" and " Long, Long Way from Home". But if given the choice - which most consumers are, since both The Definitive Collection and Jukebox Heroes are on the market simultaneously - there's no reason to select this over its more comprehensive cousin.Foreigner is the debut studio album by British-American rock band Foreigner, released on 8 March 1977. Anybody looking for all the hits, including Lou Gramm's peerless "Midnight Blue" and a little more, will be well-served by this. Which doesn't mean The Definitive Collection is bad, of course. Because of this, the very existence of The Definitive Collection is a little puzzling: Foreigner already had an excellent two-disc collection in their catalog and for those fans who only wanted the hits, 2002's Complete Greatest Hits served that need (plus, there was a single-disc 2002 collection called The Definitive out in Europe). There are no big hits absent - all the expected songs are here what's not are a pair of tunes from Mick Jones' first band, Spooky Tooth, a pair of latter-day cuts from Foreigner, plus a few album tracks along the way - but for the kind of fan that wants to invest in a comprehensive two-disc anthology, such items are missed, perhaps even necessary, since they add crucial elements to the full portrait of the band. Atlantic/Rhino's 2006 double-disc The Definitive Collection is a truncated version of Rhino's 2000 double-disc Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology, missing nine songs and featuring an edited, abbreviated set of liner notes adapted from the 2000 comp.
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