Foreigner - FOUR [DVD-A/SACD-JAPAN]

[JonUrban]

Please post your comments, thoughts and observations on the DVD-A from Warner Brothers, which has subsequently been released in 2011 by WB on SACD in Japan.

[Foxman]

This is my favorite Foreigner disk. In fact I owned this on LP as a immature 13 year old and used the song I'm gonna win to psych myself up before a football game. Anyway, I will say 9 largely due to content. The mix on both the Foreigner disks are good but not great IMO.

[Ed Bishop]

Better music than the debut, the mix is very good, still Foreigner, though....a '7'....

ED

[analogdemon]

I gave this a 10, but purely based on the sonics. The mix is nice but the sonics just absolutely blew me away. I've always liked Foreigner so it's nice to have this and the self-titled album in surround. Let's see Double Vision, Head Games and Agent Provacateur in surround, then we'll be cooking with gas!

[Ed Bishop]

The odds of us getting any further Foreigner surround don't seem very good...the DualDisc format seems to be focused on new releases, and these aren't always in 5.1, as we know....and no one at the majors, at this time, seems interested in putting out older titles in 5.1 on a regular basis(which is why I find the Bill Withers title so peculiar, precisely because it stands out so loudly).

ED

[Cai Campbell]

Foreigner 4 is certainly not on my short list of desired surround titles. Heck, it isn't even on my long list! I do like Foreigner, but by the fourth album (their most commercial effort, IMO) it was getting pretty hard to justify the space they took up in my record rack.

With that said, this DVD-A is one I hate to love. The surround mix is awesome and the sonics are spectacular. The music sure ain't fresh and it hasn't necessarily aged well, but it remains surprisingly enjoyable, especially with this DVD-A treatment.

I'll catalog this one under "guilty pleasure" and give it 9 points.

[elmer]

Urgent is a great demo track - the sax solo by Jr Walker (thanks Dave) kills - tremendous production "albeit 80's style Mutt Lange." The original CD mastering on the Foreigner catalogue was terrible. Jukebox Hero is a revelation on the DVD A. Thomas Dolby adds quite a bit of synth layering thoughout and Lou Gramm's vocals are at their peak. I give it a 9 for content and 8.5 for sound.

[daved64]

Urgent is a great demo track - the sax solo by King Curtis kills - tremendous production "albeit 80's style Mutt Lange." The original CD mastering on the Foreigner catalogue was terrible. Jukebox Hero is a revelation on the DVD A. Thomas Dolby adds quite a bit of synth layering thoughout and Lou Gramm's vocals are at their peak. I give it a 9 for content and 8.5 for sound.

King Curtis? I thought it was Jr Walker?!

Edit:
Yep

Walker returned to the spotlight in 1981 with a guest solo on Foreigner's Top Five hit "Urgent". Two years later, he re-signed with Motown and recorded "Blow the House Down". His melodic style was now being absorbed into a new generation of R&B-flavoured jazz instrumentalists.

[elmer]

My bad - you're right - still a great solo. I will fix the post - thanks for the heads up!

[zabble]

I have to totally agree with Cai on this one. Guilty pleasure it is. By the time this one came out, the band had already worn out its welcome in my musical world. I only wish the first album was given as good of a mix.

Nice panning on "Urgent". I give it a 7 for content and a 9 for surround mix and sonics.

[daved64]

Is this a Scheiner mix?

[zabble]

Is this a Scheiner mix?

No, it's John Kellogg-----the same guy who did the first Foreigner and ELP's Brain Salad Surgery surround mixes.

[daved64]

No, it's John Kellogg-----the same guy who did the first Foreigner and ELP's Brain Salad Surgery surround mixes.

Thanks. Love the ELP mix.

[jarofclay73]

A solid 10.

As a DVD-Audio baby, this was one of my first mail-order discs. I was really shocked when I first heard it (in a good way). The songs I knew were great were even better, and the songs I thought were mediocre really shines on DVD-A. I love the keyboards in the rear speakers.

Interestingly, one of the best parts of the entire package is the liner notes.

Get it while you still can...

[buc18]

I agree with the comments concerning the sonics on this one. You can really crank this one up. Its's like being in high school all over again. Very nice packaging as well (with a couple of nice extras). A 9 overall.

[rusinurbe]

Picked this up for a snip on e-bay under £10 buy it now !! described as mint and its pretty much as described. as there was one on the Amazon marketplace for £199 I did not think i would loose if i brought it.
Any way to the disc, much as described by the other reviwers some neat songs (a whole new world of 80s production pioneered on this abum), that said to my mind it sounds better that the first album. The surround mix breaths new life in to well known songs like 'waiting for a girl..' altogether not a bad purchase, not dissappointed at all with this. maybe if I had paid £199 i would be but there is still the occaisional good bargain to be found. ill give it a 9 out of 10

[LizardKing]

Urgent is a great demo track - the sax solo by Jr Walker (thanks Dave) kills - tremendous production "albeit 80's style Mutt Lange." The original CD mastering on the Foreigner catalogue was terrible. Jukebox Hero is a revelation on the DVD A. Thomas Dolby adds quite a bit of synth layering thoughout and Lou Gramm's vocals are at their peak. I give it a 9 for content and 8.5 for sound.

If I'd realised that Thomas Dolby was on this I would have purchased this back in 2003 - arghhh... at least I've got this now...

[kap'n krunch]

a 9 Music/9 mix for me!
Played this to DEATH on LP back in the day, which, somehow and mysteriously, is one of the few missing from my vinyl collection after all of these years...Still think that songs like "Luanne" are not top notch material, but the rest make up for it...

This is one of the DVD-A's I got in 2008 from HMV Japan (along with the Foreigner S/T and Billy Cobham's "Spectrum"), so they are Japanese pressed DVD-As, with a LOT of extra stuff in Japanese on them, even the "OBIs"...

[MyCuff]

I have always thought this was a well done DVD-A, better than the first Foreigner in 5.1. An easy 8 for me, and I actually leaned toward a 9, just barely...

[SoNic67]

An 8 from me too. It sounds good, surroud mix is well ballanced, almost too much on "safe" side.
Definively not worth the original price - I think that kind of pricing "killed" surround sound for many. I am really curious to hear the SACD version now...

[MyCuff]

An 8 from me too. It sounds good, surroud mix is well ballanced, almost too much on "safe" side.
Definively not worth the original price - I think that kind of pricing "killed" surround sound for many. I am really curious to hear the SACD version now...

I never paid more than 20 bucks for a DVD-A at a retail store. Seems worth it to me, especially now, but even back then. How much is the SACD going for that you would like to hear? Now that is a rip-off! As a side note, the panning in juke box hero at high volumes with four big speakers wowed all my friends.

[fredblue]

Finally getting around to rating some of these old DVDA's..

This sounds absolutely AMAZING! (I'm not sure if that's partly because I'd just sat through the ear-bleeding Bon Jovi Have A Nice Day DVDA DualDisc!?).. anyway, the surround mix works beautifully (often understated but when it gets discrete, it really goes wild!) the 5.1 livens up the now seriously dated material so much!

Oh and the sound quality is just gorgeously scrumptious! So good you could eat it!

A true demo-worthy DVDA - up there with the very best the format has to offer.

A very nearly perfect "9".