I liked some of their songs, but live they weren't exactly a spectacle to watch - I saw them around the IV album, it didn't grip me (there was also zero improvisation to or deviation from the well-trodden studio tracks) and I believe I left before the encore (they played a festival as headliners with, inter alia, BÖC and Di Anno era-Iron Maiden, Kansas might have been there too). Possibly the first line up was more entertaining visually as both Gagliardi and Greenwood threw more shapes.
That said, Lou Gramm has had accolades heaped on him as a singer and Mick Jones can write a tune or two. And "Urgent" is probably the most played early eighties song. I remember Pete Goalby of Uriah Heep - himself no slouch as regards singing - saying in an interview that Gramm is his favorite singer because "nobody can sing as high as him without beginning to sound girlish. Steve Perry is good too of course, but when he hits those very high notes, he begins to sound a bit like a woman to me".
I sometimes think that if Bad Co was a black and white picture of Free, then Foreigner was a black and white pic of Bad Co. Each formation narrowed down the musical scope of its predecessor to be yet even more accessible.
I saw Lou Gramm solo comparatively recently. He can still sing though his voice has lost that helium quality - given his health issues (brain tumor treatment) it's a wonder that he is still alive, much less that he is back singing again. All luck to him.
I think the new guy singing in Foreigner does an excellent job and seems to be genuinely enthused to be in that band. Better hairline too, Lou had a touch of Marty Feldman about him.
Of the "Great Four" late seventies/early eighties AOR bands, Journey is my favorite (that West Coast ingredient in their music, the soulishness of Perry's vocals) followed by Styx (though De Young's "broadway musical" voice is an acquired taste, it sometimes ventured in Barry Manilow territory) and Foreigner and lastly REO (a band with a good groove and instrumentalists, but Cronin's voice is even more an acquired taste for me than De Young's). But all those bands could play and wrote some real anthems - plus they are all still working entities.
But don't listen to me. I even like Loverboy. And Night Ranger. And just bought two Ambrosia CDs plus the two SPYS remasters (one of those albums always started out with some disco funk beefore the band launched into a faster rock track - I though that was kind of good-humored). I'm really despicable that way.
