Album 4… Literally
The fourth album, literally that had an impact on me, taught me how to listen to music, not just what to listen to. By the time this album had come out in 1981, I had already purchased a large amount of albums. I had heard other songs from Foreigner in the past in my mom’s car, but on my record player, I had control of the volume knob.
Fast paced right from the gate, “Night Life” was the warm up for hard pounding “Juke Box Hero”. You got a slight ease back with “Break It Up” with its familiar Foreigner sounding song. But then, given credit for the birth of the “power ballads”, one of Foreigner’s biggest hits, “Waiting For A Girl Like You”.
The album had its share of bubblegummy sounding stuff too, like “Luanne” and “Don’t Let Go”.
But the rest of the album really did have ten great songs, including “‘Girl On The Moon,” “Woman In Black,” “I’m Gonna Win,” and the biggest rock hit for them, “Urgent” featuring Junior Walker on saxophone. Really, who would have ever thought a saxophone would be a key instrument on a rock song.
I played this album a lot, and loud. My chinsy little record player’s maximum volume level came no where near what I wanted, and as time moved on, things got louder, especially attending concerts where I could feel this kind of music just pound into my body.
Oddball fact, Thomas Dolby of “She Blinded Me With Science” played the synthesizers on Foreigner’s 4 album as a studio musician. His main, if not only hit would come out in 1982 and helped along in popularity due to his video broadcasted on the newest television channel, MTV. Those of us who actually remember when MTV, which stood for music television, actually played music.
Paul's Heart 