Artist: Foreigner
Label: Ear Music Records
Release: 2010
Rating: 4.5/5
What can you even say about a more-than-successful comeback from a band that has sold over 50 million albums in its career? The first studio album in 15 years, “Can’t Slow Down”, which came out last year (RockLine review HERE), put Foreigner back in gear. Even though there were no new albums in the last 15 years, it was the live stages that kept the band alive during that stretch. After a long time, Foreigner also set foot on European soil again. If in 2009 Europe only got a bit of a taste, this year they devoted the second leg of their spring tour to Europe and to promoting the new studio release. They used the summer for sporadic appearances at a handful of festivals.
This double live album, “Can’t Slow Down …When It’s Live!”, gives you a direct look at Foreigner’s current form, spirit and essence in 2010. It comes from the band’s show in Nashville (Tennessee, USA), with the title track of the new album, “Can’t Slow Down”, added on, recorded on 7/31/2010 during this year’s festival appearance at Rock Of Ages in Seebron, Germany. Even though Can’t Slow Down was a regular in the live set, Foreigner decided to swap the Tennessee version for the one from that German festival. If the recording of the Tennessee show went off without a hitch, the only logical explanation for the move is that the band wanted to introduce its new drummer Jason Sutter on this document already. The whole Tennessee show was played by stand-in drummer Brian Tichy (known for his work with Velvet Revlver, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, Lynch Mob), who left Foreigner after the tour and joined Whitesnake, while the band was already filling its summer festival slots with Sutter in the lineup.
And the result? Worthy of the full name and greatness of Foreigner. For those of you who don’t know Kelly Hansen, who today fills Lou Gramm’s heavy boots in Foreigner, let’s just say that at times Kelly, with incredible feel and softness, gets remarkably close to the truly irreplaceable Lou Gramm, chasing him down (the chorus of Waiting For A Girl Like You, Feels Like Very First Time). At the same time Kelly is a real chameleon, pouring erogenous fuel on the fire with his explosiveness and top-notch vocal articulation. With his arrival he has definitely widened the expressive range when it comes to bringing the mood of individual songs to life (In Pieces, When It Comes To Love). Hansen, familiar to anyone who knows the hard rockers Hurricane, is the main needle on the scale that decides whether Foreigner in 2010 can still be Foreigner. Doubts are completely unnecessary. Yes! Foreigner are breathing at full capacity with Kelly.
The material is built from the band’s most recognizable hits, with a few moments devoted to showing off the new record with songs like the ballad In Pieces and When It Comes, plus, as a bonus, the lively Can’t Slow Down. And for those of you who’ve followed the band since the very beginning and know that its members grew up under the strong influence of progressive rock when the band was formed, there’s a real treat added to the set for all the gourmands: an unforgettable take on the classic Starrider.
The sound and performance boast a predatory liveliness, incredible tightness, and a shrewd hard-rock punch full of the most authentic rock grit and juicy substance. The material is played with extraordinary precision, and the rhythm section works like a tireless driving engine, pouring in, with its wiry, determined flirtatiousness, that much-needed pinch to reach damn-near erotomaniac swagger and the unique Foreigner charm of the compositions, so the songs can hit even more intensely and concisely live. The interplay of keyboards and riffs reflects exceptional experience, self-confidence and real stage invincibility, the uniqueness of Foreigner’s character. After all these years, the band members’ harmonious attunement, breathing on the same wavelength and reaching exceptional live intensity and voltage as a result, is confirmed in the best possible way by the classic Foreigner hit Urgent, where that “miraculous” and utterly triumphant dose of saxophone eroticism adds fuel to the fire.
With all this praise for the flawlessness of the new release, the question arises: where did the live document lose its flawless five points (out of five possible)? Juke Box Hero carries a stretched-out “jam”. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s thrilling and fun and brings some much-needed live variety. Still, rather than working the main phrase of the Led Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love into Juke Box Hero, you’d rather hear another Foreigner classic or two that could have enriched this live document even more.
Live, Foreigner are a lot, a lot harder than in the studio. On stage the feeling is intensified, and with it the unique Foreigner magic. The magic of the new Foreigner, with which the 34-year-old band is stronger on stage today than ever. This is an album the band’s loyal fans surely have at home already. As for everyone else just taking their first steps into the realm of primordial AOR/melodic rock, we can send you off with a warm farewell and the recommendation that, brakes off, you can elegantly skip every “best of” compilation with this live album and head straight into the heart of the essence of Foreigner’s one-of-a-kind AOR message.
Line-up
Kelly Hansen – vocals
Mick Jones – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Thom Gimbel – guitar, saxophone, backing vocals
Michael Bluestein – keyboards, backing vocals
Jeff Pilson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Brian Tichy – drums, backing vocals
Jason Sutter – drums, backing vocals (only on the track “Can’t Slow Down”)
Production
Jeff Pilson
Track list
CD 1.:
1. Double Vision
2. Head Games
3. Cold As Ice
4. In Pieces
5. Blue Morning, Blue Day
6. Waiting For A Girl Like You
7. When It Comes To Love
8. Dirty White Boy
9. Starrider
CD 2.:
1. Feels Like The First Time
2. Urgent
3. Juke Box Hero
4. Long, Long Way From Home
5. I Want To Know What Love Is
6. Hot Blooded
7. Can’t Slow Down*
*… bonus track
