I suppose now is a good time as any to revisit this album after seeing its cover model Lisanne Falk as one of the titular Heathers in the 1989 black-comedy-masquerading-as-a-teen-high-school-movie HEATHERS.
This is studio album number three by Foreigner, and their record label Atlantic seems to be catching on that they might shift some units. Their eponymous debut only saw three singles lifted from it (one of which was the eternal Cold As Ice), their follow-up DOUBLE VISION also had three singles put out from it, but this album finds them with five singles on their hands. The only problem is that they didn’t do too well. Two of them didn’t even chart in the USA.
Their next album, the platinum-selling 4 would provide the mega-hit Waiting For A Girl Like You, and its follow-up AGENT PROVOCATEUR would give us I Want To Know What Love Is, but it sounds like they’re treading water here. The most well-known song is album opener and lead single Dirty White Boy, which sounds like it should be an edgy rock masterpiece, but this is Foreigner we’re talking about and so it sounds pedestrian and over-produced to within an inch of its life – thanks in part, probably, to Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker who co-produces alongside the band’s guitarist Mick Jones and keyboard player Ian McDonald.
As for HEATHERS, what a nasty little film that is – too late for the narcissism of the ‘80s, too early for the nihilism of the ‘90s. It feels like a last ditch attempt to squeeze a teen high school film into the 1980s, and its generally flat air suggests that the dream is over. It’s too late to catch the ‘80s peak of that genre, and it’s too early to be lumped in with the edgier early ‘90s slacker films like SINGLES and REALITY BITES. I may have seen it before. It does feel very familiar; but if I did it made such a low impact on me I have no memory of it. In the end, it’s just unpleasant – perfectly encapsulated by the shot of the upset little sister at the jock’s funeral.
Hit: Dirty White Boy
Hidden Gem: I’ll Get Even With You
Vinyl Stylus 