Double Vision (1978)
1. Hot Blooded
2. Blue Morning Blue Day
3. You're All I Am
4. Back Where You Belong
5. Love Has Taken It's Toll
6. Double Vision
7. Tramontane
8. I Have Waited So Long
9. Lonely Children
10.Spellbinder
If you were a radio listener in the late ’70s, it was virtually impossible to escape Foreigner. The band was churning out hits at a brisk pace, and with albums arriving almost annually, the narrative of their success often overshadowed closer scrutiny of the records themselves. Double Vision, the band’s second studio outing, is a textbook case: wildly popular at the time, anchored by a handful of stone-cold radio staples, yet—when viewed in hindsight—something of a mixed bag.
The big hitters are undeniably strong. Hot Blooded and Double Vision remain high-water marks in the band’s catalog—fist-pumping, riff-heavy, and delivered with Lou Gramm’s trademark vocal firepower. Blue Morning, Blue Day, the third single, also holds up well. It might not carry quite the same swagger, but it’s hooky, dramatic, and a perfect example of why the band dominated FM dials during this period.
And yet, once you get past those three singles, the rest of the album never quite rises to the same level. The deeper cuts are fine—never outright embarrassing—but they rarely feel essential. At best, they’re professional and passable; at worst, they border on forgettable. It’s as if the band, unsure whether to double down on rock credibility or lean into more radio-friendly pop, tried to do both and ended up diluting both.
Slower tracks like You’re All I Am and Spellbinder are plodding affairs—ambitious in intention, but short on impact. Foreigner would eventually become masters of the power ballad, but they weren’t there yet. These songs feel more like sketches than statements. There’s also a lingering overuse of synthesizers that clouds many of the arrangements. Granted, it was 1978, and arena bands everywhere were experimenting with layers of keys, but here the effect tends to muddy rather than elevate.
Then there’s the issue of lead vocals. Mick Jones takes the mic on two tracks, and while his voice isn’t unpleasant, the shift from Lou Gramm is too stark to go unnoticed. I Have Waited So Long is actually a solid track on its own terms, but it simply doesn’t sound like Foreigner. Likewise, the instrumental Tramontane—synth-heavy and oddly placed—feels like an interlude from another album entirely.
Even Lonely Children, the deep cut most reminiscent of the classic Foreigner sound, doesn’t quite land. It checks all the boxes on paper—tight groove, Gramm on vocals, a bit of bite—but never takes off. Love Has Taken Its Toll has a decent enough riff, but Lou sounds like he’s reading the lyrics rather than singing them, and the whole thing comes across half-baked.
At the time of its release, Double Vision no doubt satisfied expectations. The hits were massive, the sales were strong, and the band’s momentum continued to build. But with the benefit of time, it’s easier to see this as a transitional record—one that found the band refining their formula but still searching for a clear identity beyond the singles. They’d get there, eventually. But not quite yet.
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