Foreigner doesn’t offer much to ponder—they’re too busy being Painfully Obvious most of the time—but there is this. Consider that the group only hit the very top of the album charts when they finally diverged—not a lot, but noticeably—from the meat-and-potatoes arena rock formula they had heretofore embraced with both arms. It turned out the answer to bandleader/songwriter/guitarist Mick Jones’ mega-platinum prayers was to let Foreigner try NOT being Foreigner—at least a little bit.

The first step in an ever-so-slightly different direction was to shed a pair of bandmembers, with Jones, Lou Gramm (lead vocals & some co-writes), Rick Wills (bass) and Dennis Elliott (drums) saying so long to founding members Al Greenwood (keys) and Ian McDonald (guitar/woodwinds/keys). With the band down to four for the group’s fourth studio album, Jones naturally chose the most obvious title imaginable for the new album.

Said album also found the group working with the hot producer du jour, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, fresh off making the career-defining Highway To Hell and Back In Black with AC/DC. As was his habit, Lange brought every single element of the music into the sharpest possible focus.

While 4 spun off several singles, the pair that did most of the damage on the charts were the two that diverged the most from Foreigner’s established sound. “Urgent” (#4 Hot 100, #1 Rock Tracks) surrounded a simple, resonant guitar riff with the swirling, rhythmic synthesizers of session keyboardist Thomas Dolby, punctuated by very special guest Junior Walker’s iconic overdriven sax break. The similarly synth-heavy “Waiting For A Girl Like You” (#2 Hot 100, #1 Rock Tracks) is the power ballad to rule them all, with Lange delivering crystalline sound, Dolby spinning silk on the keyboards, and Gramm crooning for his life.

The album also features third single and longtime concert staple “Juke Box Hero” (#26 Hot 100, #3 Rock Tracks), whose drowning-in-clichés tween-fantasy lyric is layered on top of a hook-a-palooza of guitar heroics so assertively melodramatic that you’re either going to fall on the floor laughing or air-guitar along to every note. Meanwhile, synth-heavy fourth single “Break It Up” returns once again to the “Cold As Ice” template of Victimized Guy Pleading Over Endlessly Repeating Keyboard Riff.

There are maybe two other songs on this album that the average listener has ever heard of. Opener “Night Life” is a pumping rocker whose hooks can’t come close to making up for a lyric lifted straight out of The Dude-Bro Handbook (“I’m looking for some action / I gotta find my main attraction now / ’Cause I need some satisfaction”). And “Luanne” is straight-up pop-rock whose retro appeal is undermined by its uber-crisp production.

The rest of the album is occasionally cringey, consistently formulaic filler. “I’m Gonna Win” is generic Bluster Rock; the lyric to “Woman In Black” reads like a plea for therapeutic intervention; and “Girl On The Moon” goes for spooky but isn’t scaring anyone. Album closer “Don’t Let Go” at least tries varying guitar tones and adding female harmony vocals, but there’s just no recovering from a lyric this ripe: “Our love’s a ship that has its sails a little torn / All we need to do is sew them up / And we can weather the storm.”

For a band with all the creative ambition of a fast-food franchise manager, the market performance of 4—which sat at #1 on the Billboard 200 for an astonishing 10 weeks—must have felt like a triumph. The outcome, though, was the even patchier follow-up Agent Provocateur, followed by jealousy, recrimination and a 20-year slide into irrelevance. Rock and roll can be like that, especially when you’re more interested in turning out product than making art.

Rating: C-

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