Double Vision
	Produced by Keith Olsen, Mick Jones & Ian McDonald
	Released on June 1978
	US CHART POSITION #3 . . . PLATINUM RECORD (6/22/78), 5x PLATINUM (10/30/84), 7x PLATINUM (7/18/01) . . . UK CHART POSITION #32
	Find it at GEMM
SD 19999 cover [high resolution photo]

F oreigner sold over five million copies of its sophomore effort, Double Vision. The album generated several hits; “Hot Blooded” and “Double Vision” nearly topped the charts. Obviously, in the US at least, Foreigner was here to stay. The band’s two-fisted brand of rock & roll was instrumental in ushering in a louder, larger sound that brought progressive rock’s epic scale to bear on mundane matters of the heart (i.e., arena rock). Actually, that was only one aspect of the band, albeit the one that garnered the most attention. For every track where the band swaggers like a stud, Mick Jones softens the attack with a McCartney-styled ballad like “I Have Waited So Long” or “Back Where You Belong.” There’s even an atmospheric instrumental here, “Tramontane,” that sounds like latter-day Pink Floyd. Jones could have written a good album on his own; with the help of Lou Gramm and Ian McDonald, Double Vision becomes a great album with no sign of filler. Even if the macho positioning seems dated, you can’t help but smile when a track like “Love Has Taken Its Toll” rolls around. And yet the record’s misogynism is unsettling: from song to song, women are objects or obstacles or our soulmates. These mixed messages couldn’t have had a positive effect on women, and they certainly didn’t have a positive effect on men, even if male posturing is a self-defense mechanism. As terrific a vocalist as he is, Gramm’s lyrics (multiplied by five million plus constant radio rotation) made Foreigner unnecessarily loathsome to some. Today, the sting is considerably softened, and Double Vision can be viewed as the remarkable followup that it was.

SD 19999 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. HOT BLOODED    (Lou Gramm/Mick Jones)    4:20
2. BLUE MORNING, BLUE DAY    (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm)    3:06
3. YOU'RE ALL I AM    (Mick Jones)    3:19
4. BACK WHERE YOU BELONG    (Mick Jones)    3:20
5. LOVE HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL    (Lou Gramm/Ian McDonald)    3:25
6. DOUBLE VISION    (Mick Jones/Lou Gramm)    3:40
7. TRAMONTANE    (Al Greenwood/Ian McDonald/Mick Jones)    3:52
8. I HAVE WAITED SO LONG    (Mick Jones)    4:04
9. LONELY CHILDREN    (Mick Jones)    3:31
10. SPELLBINDER    (Lou Gramm/Mick Jones)    4:43
    
    CD reissue bonus tracks
    
11. HOT BLOODED (LIVE)
12. LOVE MAKER (LIVE)

CREDITS

DENNIS ELLIOTT -- drums
ED GAGLIARDI -- bass, vocals
LOU GRAMM -- lead vocals
AL GREENWOOD -- keyboards, synthesizer
MICK JONES -- lead guitar, piano, vocals, musical direction, mixing
IAN McDONALD -- guitars, keyboards, reeds, vocals, mixing
Ian Lloyd -- backing vocals
David Paich -- string arrangements
David DeVore -- engineer
Jimmy Douglass -- mixing
Keith Olsen -- engineer
Norman Seeff -- photography & design

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