Foreigner 4 – SACD
Featuring Mutt Lange’s spotless production, contributions from Motown legend Junior Walker and new-wave icon Thomas Dolby
No less than three huge singles, and Foreigner’s most economical performances, 4 is classic-rock nirvana, a model of crystalline pop-rock melodies and lighter-flicking balladry.
More than six million copies later, the 1981 record is still rightly discussed as a front-to-back masterpiece of precision, power, and economy.
It’s an album that demands to be experienced in the highest-possible fidelity.
Foreigner 4 SACD Track List
1. Night Life
2. Juke Box Hero
3. Break It Up
4. Waiting for a Girl Like You
5. Luanne
6. Urgent
7. I’m Gonna Win
8. Woman in Black
9. Girl on the Moon
10. Don’t Let Go
Half-speed mastered from the original master tapes, their 180g LP presents 4 in a room-filling, stadium-big sound that simply crushes what’s heard on all prior versions.
Replete with energetic rockers such as “Urgent,” “Night Life,” and “Woman In Black,” the record benefits from a sonic facelift that opens up the previously compressed dynamics, expands the dimensions of the soundstage, dials in a clear path to the instrumental images, and erases the ceiling that pressed down on Lou Gramm’s superhuman vocals.
For the first time, Lange’s obsessive, detail-oriented production can be enjoyed in all its splendid glory.
Fresh off blockbuster success with AC/DC’s Back In Black, Lange uses his magic touch on 4, pairing with guitarist Mick Jones who, armed with the best batch of riffs of his career, shared a the producer’s sentiment for discipline, efficiency, and cleanliness.
And so, on crisp tunes like “Break It Up,” pianos and hard-hitting guitars share the same space without ever impinging on one another or overstepping boundaries.
The winning formula also propels Top 5 hits like the wildly funky “Urgent,” sent to new heights by Walker’s dazzling saxophone solo, and the touching “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” a crossover smash that introduced Foreigner to soft-rock and adult-pop audiences.
Simply stated, 4 has everything: Rowdy frustration-releasing cuts, fiery rock n’ roll tunes, heartfelt torch songs, and synth-drenched pop numbers.
The playing throughout positively smokes, as the one-two punch of Gramm and Jones lands with both emotional and musical impact every time.
There’s not a single wasted note. And, reduced to a quartet, Foreigner seems bent on making more with less, just as Lange does with the polished production. This is 42 minutes of hard-rocking bliss.
