Who's Foreigner?
I asked myself that in the summer of 1977, when a band I never heard of and knew nothing about had "Feels Like the First Time" all over the radio. Okay-sounding on my car FM, but where do these "hot" new groups come from, and who picks them? What's the big deal?
Twenty-five years later I picked up this album, and now I get it.
If I had been a record company suit and somebody brought this in on a tape, I wouldn't have been able to sleep for days.
Great singing, explosive energy, and really quite well-recorded -- by any standard, not just the 70's.
The DVD-A gives the sound a nitro blast into the 21st century with kick-ass drums and clean power vocals. Strangely, the power guitar chords are mixed back a little in the chorus on Feels, compared with the stereo mix.
The surround mix is spread well. Nothing really imaginative, and not quite as discrete as I'd like. Don't like the re-inclusion of Feel's break guitar line (removed in the original), and Cold as Ice is somehow a slight disappointment beside the stereo. Best track, mixwise: Fool for you Anyway. Very dramatic -- the extra channels are used well to accentuate the dynamics. As is "Star Rider" -- a mini space epic. I've never heard either in stereo, and now I don't want to. Ever.
Maybe half the tracks are filler I've tried to like but mostly skip over. The best five cuts, however, range from very good to knockout. A very solid effort. 8.