Give it a chance, people!

Unusual Heat (1991.) Foreigner's eighth album.

Following Foreigner's 1987 effort, Inside Information, the band was left with a dilemma. Lou Gramm, the band's legendary lead vocalist, had left the band to pursue his solo career. This was good for Lou Gramm, in that his solo career, while short lived, spawned some damn good songs. But, the remnants of Foreigner had a tough choice to make - Disband, or get a new singer and keep going. The band chose the latter and recruited Johnny Edwards. Did the band make the right choice? Read on for my review of Unusual Heat, Foreigner's only album to feature Edwards on vocals.

First and foremost, Foreigner was left in somewhat of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation when Gramm left the band. If they quit making music, they may never regain their once-large popularity, but if they continued without Gramm, their long-time fans might resent them. They chose to keep going with a new vocalist, and as they may have expected, it was a double-edged sword. Fans of the band DID resent them for continuing without Gramm, and didn't even give the material in question a chance - a huge mistake. Although this material was very different from the Foreigner of the past, it was still excellent. The band's sound on this album is more like that of the eighties incarnation of Bad Company than any Foreigner album of the past, but in many ways, that's a good thing. Through and through, Edwards shells out some killer vocals, and the rest of the band is in excellent shape as well. Unfortunately, many fans of the band instantly passed the material here off as bad material, merely because it was different from the Foreigner they knew and loved. Listen to this album with an open mind, and it's sure to win you over eventually.

THIS TEXT REFERS EXCLUSIVELY TO THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN CD RELEASE OF THE ALBUM, AND WAS WRITTEN ON MAY 25, 2004. Unlike the first four Foreigner albums, nothing the band recorded past 1981 has gotten the remastering and rereleasing treatment. This sucks, because these versions of the albums not only don't sound as good as the remasters of classic four albums, they also are out of print and difficult to find. If the record company can remaster and rerelease Foreigner, Double Vision, Head Games, and 4, and put bonus tracks on them, why can't they do the same for Agent Provocateur, Inside Information, Unusual Heat, and Mr. Moonlight? And who wants to hunt down these albums if their sound quality is weaker than the remasters and they don't contain bonus tracks? Obviously, no one but Foreigner die-hards.

Unusual Heat is unfairly bashed by Foreigner fans. This is NOT a bad album, people. IT'S CALLED TRYING SOMETHING NEW! Take my advice - If you're a fan of Foreigner, or of classic power rock in general, give this album a listen, but listen with an open mind. It may end up surprising you.

Not THAT Bad

I definitely have to agree a previous reviewer. I've had this album since it came out and I really enjoy it. Sure, Lou Gramm isn't with the band during this one, and you can tell. But Johnny Edwards in my opinion has a fantastic voice in his own right, and he had big shoes to fill taking Gramms place. But almost every song is great and on par with Foreinger rock. You can't beat the heavy guitar on songs like "NO Hiding Place" and "Unusual Heat". The ballads aren't all that bad either. I think if another band had put out this exact same album it would have done better, people were just biased towards him because it was Foreigner without Lou Gramm.

Unusual Heat

1991's Unusual Heat is the black sheep of the Foreigner catalogue. Unusual Heat is the one and only album without lead vocalist Lou Gramm,who at the time was busy with his solo career. Johnny Edwards steps up to the mic,and does a pretty decent job.Some of the harder rocking eliments of the band are gone,but with Unusual Heat Foreigner came up with some pretty decent material.Only Heaven Knows,Lowdown adn Dirty,and Ready for the Rain are all highlights of Unusual Heat.The whole album is easy and enjoyable to listen to,just once the album stops playing the songs are gone from your memory.Good tunes just not much beneath the surface,but also not as bad as a lot of people say.Love Foreigner and think they should never even try to replace Lou Gramm,but with Unsual Heat Foreigner did a respectable job trying to move on.