Foreigner's influences are hardly alien -- two parts Bad Company and one part ELO spiced with just a pinch of Roxy Music. Endowed with an assured studio sound and strong writers (lead guitarist Mick Jones wrote or collaborated on all the material), Foreigner's debut album speaks with the kind of authority increasingly common in the Seventies hard-rock world of instant stars.

"Long, Long Way from Home" is Foreigner at its best, lead singer Lou Gramm pumping out the chunky rocker with the characteristic ease of Bad Company's Paul Rodgers but without that singer's occasional heavy-handedness. Synthesizer and a sax round out the rocker's edges, giving it the barest hint of Roxy sophistication. Thick harmonies serve the same function for the other uptempo standout, "At War with the World," though little could have saved the tired lyrical and musical ideas of the riffy "Headknocker."

Original album advertising art. Click image for larger view.

The melodic feel and production of the ballads and midtempo material reveal ELO sources -- "Woman Oh Woman" is a particularly fetching soundalike. The swirling vocals and stately guitar of "Starrider" reveal similar pop influences, but like most of Foreigner's tunes, the lyrics add little to the song's final impact. While more than half of these tunes are powerful performances, none of them invites much emotional involvement.

Foreigner clearly has the moves to step into the big time, but needs a bit more time to gel before the group can offer more than already proven formulas. Unfortunately, in these days of prepackaged phenomena, such development sometimes seems secondary to producing a slick and marketable recorded sound. So while Foreigner already looks like a strong contender, one hopes success doesn't rob them of the time and space they need to grow.

- John Milward, Rolling Stone, 6/2/77.

Bonus Reviews!

Further reading on Super Seventies RockSite!: Album Review: Double Vision Album Review: Head Games Album Review: 4 Foreigner Lyrics

This half-English, half-American six-man group contains veterans from Spooky Tooth, the original King Crimson, and the Ian Hunter-Mick Ronson band. Founder Mick Jones plays lead guitar and writes the songs, while Lou Gramm is a real find on lead vocals. The band plays good mainstream hard rock with fine intricate vocals and proficient playing throughout. Best cuts: "Feels Like The First Time," "Starrider," "Fool For You Anyway," "I Need You."

- Billboard, 1977.

No-nonsense rock & roll catapulted the band's debut all the way to the top of the charts with the hits "Cold as Ice" and "Feels Like the First Time." * * *

- Donna DiChario, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

Essentially the brainchild of ex-Spooky Tooth guitarist Mick Jones, the Anglo/US Foreigner very nearly didn't get the record deal that enabled them to thrust themselves onto the world's airwaves with their eponymous debut alubm that spawned such AOR hits as "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold As Ice" in the spring and summer of 1977; record companies they approached apparently didn't hear a hit in the band's demos.

The band went on to become one of the biggest rock acts of the late 1970s/early 1980s and their record label's second biggest-selling international act, after Led Zeppelin. In addition to the two hit singles, the album overall featured slick production values and even slicker guitar work of Mick Jones, together with the soaring voice of singer Lou Gramm. Melody, as well as pure rock and roll riffs, play a big part in the record, and it is this blend that ensured the album's -- and subseuently the band's -- success. "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold As Ice" went to Number Four and Six in the US singles' chart respectively, while the album also went to Number Four on the US album chart, spending 113 weeks in the charts altogether, while in the then-punk dominated UK it managed a more sedate Number 24 on its release in the summer of 1978.

As of 2004, Foreigner was the #42 best-selling album of the 70s.

- Hamish Champ, The 100 Best-Selling Albums of the 70s, 2004.

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