Inside Information (1987)
1. Heart Turns to Stone
2. Can't Wait
3. Say You Will
4. I Don't Want To Live Without You
5. Counting Every Minute
6. Inside Information
7. The Beat of My Heart
8. Face to Face
9. Out of the Blue
10.A Night to Remember
Back before Foreigner ever had a record, around 1977, I'm sure the guys could easily walk down the street without being noticed. 10 years later, after selling a bazillion records, they probably still could. I mention this because Foreigner was never a "visual" nor an "image" band, and by the time 1987 arrived, a band almost had to be if they desired any level of even modest success. With MTV and music videos in full force, it almost became more common to hear someone ask "Have you seen that song?" as opposed to "Have you heard that song?"
This is probably one of the main reason why this album isn't as well-known as some of their earlier stuff. It's a damn shame, because this record is top notch. They haven't lost a thing in terms of what they were capable of doing. Everybody knows Say You Will and I Don't Want To Live Without You, and everybody who loves bands like Foreigner agrees that these are two great songs. I remember the "videos" to these songs. They weren't great. I don't think the latter even featured the band. So, yes, video and indeed killed the radio star.
Apart from those two songs, most of the remainder of the album is excellent. The album opener Heart Turns To Stone and the closer A Night To Remember are heavy, catchy, and filled with great riffs and hooks - the strong point of this band. There's a couple of tracks in the middle of the record that are basically inconsequential - Counting Every Minute and the song Inside Information really don't add much, but those are minor infractions.
Then there was talk that there was some squabbling going on behind the scenes, and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm might not be getting along too well. It did seem weird that this album came out only a few months after Lou Gramm's first, very well received solo album. That album had a lot of songs that sounded like Foreigner, and it seemed to receive much more attention that this one did. Perhaps they should have waited a bit longer before putting this one out.
Still, the album did sell over one million copies - not much of an achievement considering what some of their earlier records brought in, but it was still much better than most of their contemporaries (those that were still even around, that is). Because of the tension making this record, they would rarely feature songs from this album when they would perform live. Speaking of "live", they didn't even tour to promote this album - they only played a handful of shows in Eurpoe. That was a shame as this record deserved much better. This is definitely the most underrated piece in the band's catalog.
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