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Foreigner: Feels Like the First Time

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Atlantic Records
Released: 2011.09.13
Time:
 43:50 / 47:12
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Jeff Pilson
Rating:
Media type: CD double
Web address: www.foreigneronline.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2014
Price in €: 2,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


CD 1: Acoustique - The Classics Unplugged

[1] Long, Long Way from Home (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 2:52
[2] Cold As Ice (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:42
[3] The Flame Still Burns (J.Difford/M.Frederiksen) - 4:58
[4] Double Vision (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:24
[5] Fool for You Anyway (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:17
[6] Say You Will (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:26
[7] Starrider (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:29
[8] Waiting for a Girl Like You (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 5:15
[9] Feels Like the First Time (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:11
[10] Juke Box Hero (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 5:15
[11] That's All Right (A.Crudup) - 3:11


CD 2: Juke Box Heroes - Brand new rock recordings of Foreigner‘s greatest hits

[1] Save Me (J.Messer/S.Ronson) - 3:49
[2] Feels Like the First Time (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:07
[3] Cold As Ice (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:14
[4] Long, Long Way from Home (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 2:57
[5] Hot Blooded (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:08
[6] Double Vision (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:42
[7] Head Games (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:59
[8] Dirty White Boy (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 3:51
[9] Urgent (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:32
[10] Waiting for a Girl Like You (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:50
[11] I Want to Know What Love Is (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:45
[12] Juke Box Hero (M.Jones/L.Gramm) - 4:25

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Mick Jones - Guitar, Vocals, Electric Piano, Synthesizer Organ, Executive Producer
Jeff Pilson - Electric & Upright Bass, Engineer, Executive Producer, 12 String & Acoustic Guitar, Producer, String Arrangements, Background Vocals
Stevie Blacke - Soloist, String Arrangements, Viola, Violin
Michael Bluestein - Clavinet, Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Synthesizer, Background Vocals
Tom Gimbel - Flute, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Saxophone, Background Vocals
Samantha Ronson - Producer, Synthesizer
Jeff Jacobs - Keyboards
Paul Mirkovich - Keyboards
Jason Bonham - Drums
Mark Schulman - Drums, Percussion
Aaron Sterling - Drums
Lisa Dondlinger - Violin
Jacob Szekely - Cello
Erika Walczak - Violin
Dukedale Gil Ellis Choir - Chorus
Gilmar Gomes - Percussion
Kelly Hansen - Percussion, Vocals
Tita Hutchison - Scat

Jeff Pilson - Producer
Christine Davies - Producer
Wyn Davis - Engineer, Mastering, Mixing, Surround Mix
Jimmy Messer - Engineer, Producer, Programming
Frank Pappalardo - Engineer
Jeremy Sklarsky - Engineer
Ted Tuthill - Assistant Engineer
Adam Arnold - Assistant, Assistant Engineer
Brian Malouf - Mixing
Eric Sarafin - Mixing
David Carey - Mixing Assistant
Mike Fasano - Drum Technician
Bill Bernstein - Photography
David Richman - Art Direction
Matt Amoroso - Marketing

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded at Total Access Studios, Redondo Beach, CA. Tracks 4,9,14 produced by Mick Jones & Marti Fredediksen. Recorded at Benjamin Hotel, NY & Poppy Studios. Track 16 produced by Jeff Pilson. Executive Producer: Mick Jones. Recorded at Total Access Studios, Redondo Beach, CA.



2011’s Feels Like The First Time, which features 23 cuts spanning two discs, offers up a twist on the old best-of formula. Rather than serve up the same collection of iconic radio hits (“Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Juke Box Hero,” “Urgent”), which Foreigner has done so many times that their greatest-hits anthologies actually outnumber the studio albums, the band chose to re-record their biggest hits, allowing new vocalist Kelly Hansen the chance to further hone his admittedly impressive Lou Gramm impression. Disc one, which features unplugged versions of the songs, is the most interesting of the lot, though that’s mostly due to the fact that disc two, which contains the new studio versions, is so true to the originals that it sounds like Hansen doing karaoke. The addition of one new cut, the amiable yet generic “Save Me," might interest fans who have followed lone original member Mick Jones' version of the group since they began juggling new lead singers in 1991, but more than likely, Feels Like The First Time will simply hoodwink casual listeners looking for the classics into taking the bait.

James Christopher Monger - All Music Guide



Disc One: Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged: This unplugged set of studio recordings of Foreigner's classic hits features Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen, Jeff Pilson and Tom Gimbel, and also pays tribute to Elvis Presley with a blistering version of "That's All Right". A high point on the Acoustique disc is the never released song, "The Flame Still Burns," which was co-written by Mick Jones for 1998 cult rock movie Still Crazy, where it was performed by Jimmy Nail. Mick won the prestigious English Ivor Novello songwriting award for this song.

Disc Two: Juke Box Heroes: Brand New Digital Recordings of Foreigner's Greatest Hits: This collection of Foreigner's greatest hits was digitally recorded this year by mastermind, composer and producer Mick Jones, sensational lead singer Kelly Hansen, bassist Jeff Pilson, multi-instrumentalist Tom Gimbel, keyboardist Michael Bluestein and drummer Mark Schulman. The set also includes a brand new song, "Save Me", which was co-written with Mick Jones' step-daughter and well-known DJ & musician, Samantha Ronson.

Wallmart.com



Foreigner is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the band's formation by going acoustic, electric and live - all on the same package.

"Feels Like the First Time" is a CD/DVD package that will be released by Razor & Tie exclusively via Wal-Mart on Sept. 13, while the audio components will also be available on iTunes. The set comprises a pair of CDs - "Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged" and "Juke Box Heroes: Brand New Digital Recordings of Foreigner's Greatest Hits," along with the DVD "Live in Chicago," which was filmed in March during two shows at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Ill., and will also be shown during PBS' pledge drive this fall.

Album Cover"This is an extra rubber stamp on our claim to this (catalog)," Kelly Hansen, who's been Foreigner's frontman since 2005, tells Billboard.com. "You are constantly having to re-establish yourself. There was a time in the late 90s when the band suffered in reputation, and I think we've spent a good part of the last six years going all over the world to re-establish that this band is very strong and relevant and full of great songs."

Hansen says he and the rest of Foreigner are particularly excited about the "Acoustique" disc, which features unplugged renditions of "Feels Like the First Time," "Waiting For a Girl Like You," "Cold as Ice" and other Foreigner favorites, plus a cover of the Arthur Crudup/Elvis Presley classic "That's All Right" and the first-ever Foreigner recording of "The Flame Still Burns," a song guitarist and founder Mick Jones wrote for the fictional band Strange Fruit to perform in the 1998 film "Still Crazy."

Hansen says the acoustic sessions, which were recorded at the Hit Factory in New York, grew from a German radio tour the band did during 2010.

"We were doing these live acoustic shows that were being broadcast," he recalls, "and we got a huge response. It was kind of shocking and surprising, and also something that was really new for us. We've never really done that, kind of laying yourself out naked, without lights and amps or anything. It was a real different feeling and a challenge, so we came back and decided to experiment."

The group played some additional acoustic shows in the U.S. and Canada, and Hansen says is considering more of those to help promote "Feels LIke the First Time." "We're still working out the details for that, but it should be interesting," he notes.

The 12-song "Juke Box Heroes" disc, meanwhile, features a new song called "Save Me" as well as the re-recorded hits. "We started doing that quite awhile ago with the intention of using those tracks for licensing," Hansen says. "When fans caught wind that those things were in progress, they let us know they wanted a piece of it, so we decided to put them out."

Foreigner is currently on the road with Journey and Night Ranger, a package that wraps up on Oct. 21 in Seattle. Hansen says the group also hopes to record a follow-up to 2009's "Can't Slow Down," the first original album by this incarnation of Foreigner, but so far "we haven't started talking about that yet. We just got done with ('Feels Like the First Time') and we're on this tour, but we'll get there."

Gary Graff - July 29, 2011



Wal-Mart exclusive releases are a funny thing, to say nothing of their conceptual absurdity. As successful as the nationwide mega-store is, releasing one’s album solely through that outlet seems a strange way to sell a record. The album will no doubt sell; the store’s low-price guarantee, after all, is just so darn hard to resist. Still, there are plenty of other stores that could sell the record just as well. It isn’t as if the exclusivity of the Wal-Mart deal gives the album prestige of any sort – panache is a word that no one on earth would ascribe to the retailer. However, people still continue to do it. The most notable recent example would be the Eagles’ most recent LP, 2007’s Long Road Out of Eden. The album did end up moving over seven million copies (it seems that one Lebowski’s vitriol toward the band is wasted on the public), so it seems that the deal was far from a failure, even though the album’s exclusivity ended up giving way to having the album put on iTunes.

Maybe it’s fate that the success of the Wal-Mart model and Foreigner’s 35th anniversary align. The former is a symbol of how fiscal conservatism can move product; the latter is, in reality, a meaningless date that has no particular significance in the history of contemporary rock music. Nonetheless, fate’s power would not relent, and as a result these two forces have teamed up and have given us Feels Like the First Time, a two-CD set comprised of acoustic covers of older material and digitally remastered tracks of, you guessed it, older material. Never has a title been such an apt summation of an entire double-disc record.

Indeed, it does feel very much like the “first time” Foreigner’s music was released. The only substantive difference is the vocalist, and even that doesn’t necessitate re-recording the material. New vocalist Kelly Hansen, while not a bad singer by any measure, isn’t that far different from former singer Lou Gramm; at moments they’re indistinguishable. Like most albums of its kind, Feels Like a First Time is a perfunctory re-release, something that Foreigner diehards would buy in a heartbeat, but for those non-fans it amounts to nothing more than yet another greatest hits compilation disguised as a re-envisioning. The album shows no shortage of the band’s successes, but as time has gone on, it’s the bands flaws that are more evident than anything (“Well I cried for you so long / My river of tears ran dry” — yep, still corny 35 years later).

The acoustic disc (“classily” titled “Acoustique”) and the remastered disc (not-so-classily titled “Juke Box Heroes”) are both deeply flawed, though both for different reasons. The acoustic disc succumbs to what many acoustic albums do: they do absolutely nothing to invigorate the original tracks. Instead, all of the songs here play just like the originals, only diverging sonically in timbre. Even on the tracks that sound pretty good in a stripped-down style, such as “Fool for You Anyway” and (oddly enough) “Double Vision,” the instrumentation is basically note for note. If one is a fan of the originals, then she’s likely to enjoy the stuff here. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the enjoyment of the songs is contingent on how good they were twenty or thirty years ago; a pleasant listen, perhaps, but one that’s too predictable for its own good. (And as far as predictability is concerned, this is Foreigner we are talking about here).

The second disc is even worse off. As if the initial premise of Feels Like the First Time wasn’t bad enough, it only gets worse on disc two. Thus far, Foreigner have released ten greatest hits LPs (that actually outnumbers their studio output); with this album, make it eleven. Based on those numbers, it seems more as if the band isn’t interested in releasing studio records, but are comfortable in merely revisiting all of its old material over and over again, making sure to take the time to call it something else. This trend might not exactly be revelatory (around greatest hits compilation number three this all probably started coming together), but it is nonetheless true for this record, and frustratingly so. The only real thing different on this remastered disc is that the production quality is slightly better; the extra garnishes of synthesizer on some of the tracks hardly amount to anything exciting. This means that while this is basically another Foreigner greatest hits compilation, it does have the benefit of … being more polished. For people who were concerned about Foreigner’s lack of said polish, this album is worth the time. Otherwise, the ten other greatest hits collections in Foreigner’s repetitive oeuvre should suffice.

Brice Ezell - 14 September 2011
PopMatters Assistant Editor



For classic rock fans the new three disc set from Foreigner, Feels Like the First Time, may be something of a mixed blessing. What you get, with an exception or two, is multiple versions of the band’s greatest hits. One disc, Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged, has the latest manifestation of the band running through a stripped-down acoustic version of their songbook. The second, Juke Box Heroes, is a set of “brand new digital recordings” of the band’s greatest hits. Finally, Live in Chicago is a DVD filmed in March of 2011 with some bonus features like backstage footage, interviews with the band, and videos of two of the band’s acoustic performances.

Taken altogether, the set gives you an awful lot of Foreigner, perhaps more than any but the band’s most fanatic followers might want. Others might prefer just a little bit more variety in the repertoire. Great as many of these songs are, do we really need three versions of “Feels Like the First Time” and “Cold as Ice”?  After all, out of three hours of music, more or less, there are only two new songs and one cover of another artist.

Although founding member Mick Jones has said he’s surprised that it has taken this long for the band to do some acoustic recording, it may take even more time for listeners to get used to it. The idea of a band reworking its material is not new. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Certainly part of the appeal of classic rockers redoing their hits is nostalgia; reworking the material may have other rewards, but in this case doesn’t push that button. There is something about listening to songs like “Jukebox Hero” and “Double Vision” unplugged that seems just a bit off. Even ballads like “Waiting for a Girl Like You” don’t immediately seem to have the same kind of energy of the originals. Interestingly the band in the DVD interviews clearly recognizes the emotional appeal the music has for their audience. Perhaps then it should come as no surprise that the immediate reaction to the reworked songs might be disappointment. In fact the least disappointing track was the cover of the Elvis Presley bonus track “That’s All Right.”

The newly recorded material on the second disc and the performances on the DVD are another story. While there may be some who would prefer remastered versions of the originals, the band in its latest incarnation is no second rate copy. Besides Jones on guitar and keys, the current Foreigner lineup features Jeff Pilson on bass, Tom Gimbel on guitars and reeds, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, and Mark Schulman on drums. Former lead singer Lou Gramm might well object to the branding, but life goes on and bands change. Foreigner as now constituted is playing as well as it ever did. Kelly Hansen, Gramm’s replacement, has the vocal chops to do full justice to the music. Moreover he is a charismatic performer who knows how to take the stage and work the audience. When they plug in, Foreigner can still rock with the best of them. “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Urgent,” “Head Games”: these are the songs you remember, the way you remember them.

Jack Goodstein - September 26, 2011
BlogCritics.org



After a triumphant tour with Journey that saw Foreigner play to tens of thousands of new fans and earn great critical acclaim, Foreigner announces the release of a brand new album, ‘Acoustique’.

Foreigner first saw success throughout the world with their ground breaking debut album that featured chart hits such as ‘Feels Like The First Time’ and ‘Cold As Ice’, and scored multi platinum sales and a world tour. The band went on to sell over 70 million albums, driven by some of the most important songs in the Classic Rock era. ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ was a worldwide number one hit and ‘Waiting For A Girl Like You’ is in the Top 50 Billboard magazine’s All Time Greatest Pop Songs. The rocking side of Foreigner was always key to their success, and songs like ‘Hot Blooded’, ‘Dirty White Boy’, ‘Urgent’ and ‘Juke Box Hero’ took the band to new levels.

‘Acoustique’ will be released on Edel’s international rock label, earMUSIC distributed in the UK & Republic of Ireland by Absolute via Universal on September 26th. It takes a fresh look at some of Foreigner’s hits and offers some unique surprises. The stripped down version of these great songs shows Foreigner in an entirely new light, and the release will be supported by unplugged tour dates and multiple television appearances. Foreigner inject new life into all their hits, pay tribute to Elvis Presley with a unique recording of ‘That’s All Right’ and throw in a couple of previously unreleased tracks. ‘The Flame Still Burns’ was co-written by Mick Jones for 1998 cult rock movie, ‘Still Crazy’, where it was performed by Jimmy Nail. Mick won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for that song. The album features a brand new song, ‘Save Me’, which was co-written with Mick Jones’ step-daughter and well-known DJ & musician, Samantha Ronson.

‘Acoustique’ will also be available in a special limited edition box set that includes a DVD and a CD of brand new digital recordings of Foreigner’s greatest hits by the current line-up. The DVD features a full-length live concert in high definition that was recorded in Chicago earlier this year and some bonus features that include one of Foreigner’s first acoustic performances at Schloss Kronberg in Frankfurt that inspired the making of the Acoustique CD.

‘Acoustique’ features Mick Jones on guitars and vocals; Kelly Hansen, lead vocals and percussion; Jeff Pilson, guitars and vocals and Tom Gimbel, guitars, saxophone and vocals. The quartet is joined by Michael Bluestein on keyboards and vocals, and Mark Schulman on drums for the digital recordings of the hits and the DVD.

ClassicRockRevisited.com



According to Billboard.com, FOREIGNER is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the band’s formation by going acoustic, electric and live – all on the same package.

Feels Like the First Time is a CD/DVD package that will be released by Razor & Tie exclusively via Wal-Mart on September 13, while the audio components will also be available on iTunes. The set comprises a pair of CDs – Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged and Juke Box Heroes: Brand New Digital Recordings of Foreigner’s Greatest Hits, along with the DVD Live in Chicago, which was filmed in March during two shows at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Ill., and will also be shown during PBS’ pledge drive this fall.

Billboard.com
 

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