Unknown Soldier

Foreigner were without doubt one of the flagship bands of AOR and their debut album the eponymous Foreigner ended up being one of the biggest selling rock albums of 1977 and in fact if anybody were to ask me which is the best starter album for a novice AOR listener then I’d certainly point them in this direction. The album achieved a whopping 5x platinum status in the US alone and gave the band three hit singles in “Feels Like the First Time” “Cold As Ice” and “Long, Long Way from Home” with the first two here actually cracking the higher echelons of the Billboard top 10. What makes the Foreigner debut and indeed their first four albums appealing, is the simple fact that the band found an accomplished rock-orientated formula without any excess baggage. The majority of the tracks on their albums could often be considered ‘singles material’ because the band had a strong knack of consistently writing material that sounded like it was readily available for radio airplay.

What made Foreigner interesting was the cultural background of its original members, It contained frontman Lou Gramm who I should point out here was one of the finest exponents of what an AOR frontman should be all about, along with fellow Americans Al Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi. They combined with three British musicians Mick Jones the other pivotal member with Lou Gramm, Ian McDonald and Dennis Elliot, and it was the first two that really gave the band their unique character. Mick Jones had originally been in Spooky Tooth the old organ-dominated hard rock band, that had certainly been highly influential on Deep Purple and it’s clear that this sound was injected into the veins of the band. Ian McDonald (keyboards/guitar) had been in probably the finest line-up that King Crimson ever put out and certainly came into the Foreigner set-up with the biggest reputation.

The ten tracks on the album despite their obvious straight-forward rock approach, are actually very well crafted rock pieces that really do stand the test of time and have a lot more depth musically than they’re often given credit for and none come any better than the opening “Feels Like the First Time” which feels like the band’s very own blueprint on how the rest of their output would sound. The following “Cold as Ice” has an even more instant sound with its piano intro quickly being supplanted by the instant Lou Gramm vocal style, something that the John Wetton Asia era material would evoke as well, both these tracks are great driving arena rock staples. If the band had found the perfect blueprint for their sound with the album opener, they then added an even more durable one in “Long, Long Way from Home” which also introduced us to their use of a sax/synth highlight. “Woman Oh Woman” sounds like a staple AOR track, as does the heavier “At War with the World” and “I Need You“ is a strong album closer.

Not all the songs on the album though do it for me, as songs like “Headknocker” sound like typical bar room material and this type of thing was done far better by the likes of the J.Geils Band, but its thumping style does keep it in the tone of the album material. “Fool for You Anyway” ends up sounding like one of those warm album tracks often employed by American artists of the 1970s, not a bad track at all but not overly suited to Foreigner in this instance. The keyboards and synths of the band are not dominantly used like some of their fellow bands, but instead they’re well-crafted to fully enhance the band’s sound and feature in pivotal points of several songs. This example is best highlighted on a track like “The Damage is Done” which despite being led by Lou Gramm’s vocals ends up as being one of the most accomplished songs on the whole album and it’s an effort not to be missed.

The oddity on the album and certainly one of the most interesting tracks the band ever put out comes in the form of “Starrider” which is actually sung by Mick Jones and the song smacks of that epic 1970s proggy/pomp rock feel and only serves to make me wonder why the band didn’t attempt more material like this. Perhaps omitting this type of material is one of the reasons why the band were quickly embraced, as their lack of interest in tinkering with a progressive rock sound and adopting a far more basic hard rock line in the form of AOR was far better suited to the modern musical terrain.

It could be argued that Foreigner were in many ways the first manufactured AOR band, quite simply due to that fact that the band members were geared up to produce a sound that worked perfectly with radio airplay and would be able to shift millions of records, a formula that would soon be the prime driver behind the AOR shield for most bands. This belief is supported by the fact that the band totally shied away from the progressive roots of both Mick Jones and Ian McDonald with the exception of one song and into strictly radio friendly material.

With this album the band found their perfect niche stylistically, they never had the smooth sound of say Toto or Journey and they certainly didn’t have the panache of Styx, but what they did provide us with was a solid line that straddled hard rock meets AOR combined with extremely catchy songs that were all produced in the most accomplished manner. This was largely thanks to the grittier sounding vocals of Lou Gramm combined with the rougher around the edges feel of the band’s sound, compared to the flawless sound most other AOR bands would aspire to. The band not only had a consistency in the type of material that they were writing, but also in their ability to turn out multi-platinum albums year after year starting with their debut and this certainly showed that they were never going to get bogged down with needless perfection like Boston who ended up giving us albums once in a blue moon.

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Anteater

In the halcyon days of California's soft rock dream, there was once a group of kids who wanted to be the next Beach Boys, or perhaps a CSN&Y-ish outfit if possible. However, an early encounter in 1971 with King Crimson in the midst of one of their U.S. live shows promoting In The Wake Of Poseidon would forever alter the DNA of this burgeoning conclave of talent and their focus: four years later, future yacht rock kings Ambrosia hit the airways with a punch and a kick quite different from Styx and (a year later) Boston...but they made quite a mark, blending prog and early AOR with an unfettered ease unique to the period.

Mixed and partly produced by the legendary Alan Parsons, this glorious sun-dazed West Coast AOR debut is not only one of the best albums of the 1970's, but remains one of the coolest crossover records in the entirety of recorded music history. While its status as one of the first "real" American AOR records is interesting, there's just as much King Crimson and Gentle Giant in this album as there is Steely Dan and what Kansas + Styx were getting their feet wet in, and that made them stand out in a good way.

At this point, Ambrosia was a power quartet led by the pipes and phenomenal guitar + bass work of David Pack and Joe Puerta respectively. These two shared lead vocal duties, though it was Pack who would also front and compose the group's biggest hits in the late 70's and early 80's (such as soft rock staples 'How Much I Feel' and 'You're The Biggest Part Of Me'). They would also be present on Alan Parsons's first Project in 1976, the Edgar Allen Poe-inspired classic Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, further demonstrating that the link between progressive rock and AOR-ready radio friendly material wasn't as difficult to connect as critics might have thought.

So basically, although outfits like The Alan Parsons Project and Toto would be influenced by this album's sound to a substantial degree in the second half of the 70's, nothing sounds quite like it before or since. 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' sports an addictive groove and some Kurt Vonnegut derived lyrical content, resulting in one helluva good idea, but it's on radio-golden cuts like 'Holdin' On To Yesterday' and strange sprawlers along the lines of 'Drink Of Water' and 'Mama Frog' where this band's uncanny talent at blending killer melodies with proggy pathos is unveiled to a glorious maximum.

So, not your average 80's rock template, yet not quite "yacht rock" or a pure progressive rock album. In fact, this album is very difficult to categorize. Still, its important to the overall development of America's AOR sound and deserves its place in the top 5.

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OccultHawk

Great quote and after listening to Fountains for the first time, thanks to you, I'm inclined to agree.

I really enjoyed that record!

PS Readers should take note that the quote up there is referring to the date that Fountains was released. Taken out of context it could be read to mean it's better than Yes overall which wasn't the author's intention.

Unknown Soldier

The Yes albums from this period were the mediocre Going for the One and the poor Tomato

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OccultHawk

I actually consider Going for the One excellent (Wonderous Stories, Vevey Revisited-on the Deluxe version) and Tormato hit or miss, but when it hits it hits.

I would have to take more careful consideration about Tormato vs. Fountains but no way I'm saying it's better than Going.

I still think it's great quote though because Fountains is really very surprisingly good.

Trollheart

Followed up by the lesser-known and somewhat failed Cucumber and Onion, to say nothing of the ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful double concept album Caesar Salad...

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OccultHawk

Don't forget Ultimate Spinach

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulti...pinach_(album)

Unknown Soldier

I thought Irish jokes were meant to be funny.

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Anteater

Well....long story short folks, Equinox is an insanely important album in regards to AOR. Until this point, Styx was considered to be a purely "art-rock" outfit with a bit more groove than your typical band at this point in the 70's, and nobody thought they had much of a future at the time. With this album, however, the shift into more commercial territory with a bigger emphasis on catchy, pompish synth breaks and catchy guitar leads erupted on radio at the time with lead single 'Lorelei', which quickly soared to the Top 30 and brought Dennis DeYoung and co. some much needed exposure. You could see the eyes of the folks at A&M projecting dollar signs onto the nearest wall when this thing went Gold, lol!

And while most of us know that particular song, the rest of the tunes don't slouch none either. In fact, you can hear arena rock being formulated as a genre here, the beginnings of something that a few crossover records around the same time were starting to grab onto (such as Queen's A Night At The Opera). Accessible, yet grandiose and absolutely riveting in a live setting once you throw in a few extended drum and guitar solos.

For all intents and purposes therefore, this was the start of the American butt rock revolution. You can hear it in the key-soaked uppercut of 'Light Up', the ELP-gone-bar-band riffage of 'Midnight Ride', and even a more elaborate, delicious form of what would become the power ballad in fan favorite 'Suite Madame Blue', a proggy little journey that deals with the ideal vs reality conundrum of the American Dream for the skeptical and idealistic alike.

If you like important albums and are looking for a good starting point to get into Styx chronologically, this is a very impressive album. If you also love AOR in general though, I think this is essential listening and a good entry place for the snobby progheads who don't believe in pop sensibility or having fun.

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Unknown Soldier

After the band’s commercial breakthrough with Equinox in 1975, the band then stalled on the even more balanced Crystal Ball album in 1976 but by the time of their seventh album The Grand Illusion, the band would finally become one of the biggest rock bands in the USA and The Grand Illusion a mainstay at the higher end of the album chart. The Grand Illusion is quite simply one of my all-time favourite albums and even today its brilliance still has the ability to mesmerize me and send me to a far away place, something that the best Styx recordings have always been able to do. If I had my way this album would’ve been in the number one slot on this year’s listing, but as we have a democratic voting system this went to another band. The Styx music principal at this time was to combine intellectual keyboard-orientated pomp rock with a hard rock backbone and plenty of pseudo-intellectual lyrics thrown in as well. The band knew that focused shorter songs were the way to go and with a strong eye on commercialism the band were very much forerunners of the AOR genre.

Now for such a classic album not every song here is great by any means and I’ll get these tracks out of the way first. The opening and title track “The Grand Illusion” is a credible enough track and goes through various stylistic changes which kind of mirrors the opening track “Put Me On” from the previous Crystal Ball album and Dennis DeYoung carries the song both lyrically and vocally well enough. The song also makes another appearance at the album end where it acts as a reprise. “Superstars” is a poor track and a real duffer and strangely enough is the only song on the album that despite being sung by Tommy Shaw, features all the songwriters working together for the only time on the album and this change in focus shows.

The first of the classic tracks starts with “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)” a gloriously penned Tommy Shaw track that matches his “Crystal Ball” effort from the previous album. The song starts with a wonderful spiralling keyboard intro that is mixed in with an acoustic guitar and this combo carries the essence of the song, which really gets underway when Tommy Shaw announces ‘relax, take it easy’ and here he comes across as a kindly psychiatrist that is trying to relax his patient before embarking on one of his great musical fables. The album finally goes into its realm of excellence with track four where it almost changes face with the 6 minute “Come Sail Away” and a song like this on the previous two albums would’ve operated as an epic album closer just think “Suite Madame Blue” and “Clair de Lune” from those albums, but here it features slap bang in the middle of the album and starts with a simple piano base and then moves into a strong ballad before embarking onto being a powerful rocker.

The second side of the album starts with “Miss America” and is another one of the great Styx songs and one of James Young’s finest moments and he was certainly the iron man that put the steel into the band. “Miss America” starts with that haunting almost fantasy sounding Keyboard intro that permeates through most of the album, before embarking as a galloping rocker and its deceptively basic hard rock riffs yearn back to the glory days of American hard rock of the early 1970s. “Man in the Wilderness” is a Tommy Shaw track that I can listen to all day long and he was really a master of evoking feelings of melancholy into his work and this is a dreamy sounding effort full of his fabled lyrics. Finally “Castle Walls” with its heartbeat intro which combines neatly with the band’s medieval vibe, is one of the great Dennis DeYoung efforts as he combines cryptic lyrics with dreamy pomp and the guitar work of Tommy Shaw here is exceptional, as is the keyboard work of Dennis DeYoung.

The winning formula on The Grand Illusion is without doubt the unique identity of its best tracks where the band’s three primary songwriters and vocalists Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw and James Young have sole writing and vocal credits for their own songs and it’s almost like each member has tried to outdo the other a la Beatles on Abbey Road, whereas in the past a large number of the band’s material was either jointly written or had a different songwriter and vocalist combination, a combination I always loved but here the change in direction clearly enhances this album. I think the album cover is glorious as well with its vertical wooded trees which evoke a medieval setting and a medieval vibe can be heard on a number of tracks as well. The multi-coloured horse and the elements of the woman's face add to the album cover's allure. I’m not sure if the album title with its ambition is a nod to the classic Jean Renoir film of the same title, often considered one of the best French films ever but I'd like to think that it is. The Grand Illusion is not a concept album from what I can tell, but the name the grand illusion points to some kind of deceptive function behind the whole album.

When I think The Grand Illusion I think epic and unique songwriting, focused and timeless efforts, glorious synthesizer flourishes, pseudo-medieval elements and interesting lyrics. The Grand Illusion along with the following Pieces of Eight would be the two greatest statements from this band and benchmarks in the 1970s American rock scene, a truly legendary album.

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