So why is Foreigner’s Double Vision on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
To beat an aging cliché… even harder, I’m not always in the mood for Foreigner, but when I am I throw on Double Vision. Which is a short way of expressing that while I don’t dislike most of Foreigner’s output, it’s not stuff that I’m typically clamoring for. I’m good on my lifetime consumption of “I Want To Know What Love Is” and my “Cold As Ice,” for example.
But Double Vision is different. This thing rocks as hard as a local, fictional bar band in late ‘80s western Pennsylvania that I’ll get to in a little bit.
The title track, “Double Vision,” is by far my favorite Foreigner song, and in fact it’s one of my favorite songs of the entire 1970s. I didn’t think very much about why, though, until I sat down to write this piece.
I realized that it’s a unique and amazing blend of late ‘70s hard rock with a surprisingly sophisticated drum part by Dennis Elliott and an overall sophistication that feels a little progressive rock-ish. But, critically, overall the pace and structure of the song is airtight, avoiding (in my view) the meandering excess that “prog rock” can often get derailed by.
And then we get to the horns, the crushing guitar hook, the killer chorus, and Lou Gramm’s great vocals.
Fill my eyes with that double vision
No disguise for that double vision
I think of “Hot Blooded” as the ultimate bar band song. This relates to my comment above about “a local, fictional bar band in late ‘80s western Pennsylvania.” That’s pulled from Adventureland, a gem of a dramedy and one of my favorite movies of all time. While Em (Kristen Stewart) and James (Jesse Eisenberg) get to know each other at a dive bar, this fantastically over the top band – with far more enthusiasm than talent – rocks out to “Hot Blooded” in the background. Unfortunately, I couldn’t grab footage of the band playing, but it’s in this scene.
Anyway, “Hot Blooded” became a staple of FM rock radio for decades for good reason. The Foreigner formula is very similar with this one, with sophisticated musicality under the hood of the big, muscular guitar hook and singalong chorus.
“Blue Morning, Blue Day” is a great rock song with an epic, theatrical feel that has a camaraderie with bands such as Queen and Electric Light Orchestra. Good company, indeed.
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Foreigner’s Double Vision
Let me take you a little bit behind the scenes of how I create all of these articles on Pop Thruster. I write and edit using a template on Microsoft Word, and then “produce” and layout the stories – or “posts” as they’re called in WordPress world – in WordPress before finally publishing them to the interwebs.
I’ve used Microsoft Word for many years (and I shiver to even say decades). Just today, I paid full attention for the very first time that there’s a “Dictate” feature that allows you to speak and have Word translate the audio into text.
I tried out using Dictate to “compose” this section and the results were… mixed.
Even more personal stuff that’s somehow related to Foreigner’s Double Vision
Since I was a kid, for some reason I would always get confused with the band names Journey and Foreigner, figuring out which band was which, so to speak.
I want to say that The Sopranos’ iconic series finale, in which Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” played a significant part, helped me to (finally!) lock in the difference. In any event, check out Journey’s Frontiers, #607 of the best 1,000 albums ever.
Some stats & info about Foreigner – Double Vision
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Album Rock, Hard Rock, Arena Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Double Vision released? 1978
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #438 out of 1,000
Foreigner’s Double Vision on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Foreigner’s Double Vision that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Feeling down and dirty, feeling kinda mean, I’ve been from one to another extreme.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.