Description
Foreigner 4 on numbered limited edition 180-gram vinyl from Mobile Fidelity. This No. 1 1981 album teems with hits: “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” and “Juke Box Hero”. This is Foreigner’s most consistent, economical, and cleanly produced record.
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.
Half-speed mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s 180-gram vinyl 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.
 | Side 1 |
| Night Life |
| Juke Box Hero |
| Break It Up |
| Waiting for a Girl Like You |
| Luanne |
| Side 2 |
| Urgent |
| I’m Gonna Win |
| Woman in Black |
| Girl on the Moon |
| Don’t Let Go |
