Inside Information (1987)
1. Heart Turns to Stone
2. Can't Wait
3. Say You Will
4. I Don't Want To Live Without You
5. Counting Every Minute
6. Inside Information
7. The Beat of My Heart
8. Face to Face
9. Out of the Blue
10.A Night to Remember
Back in the late '70s, when Foreigner first hit the scene, you could have walked past any one of them on the street and been none the wiser. Even at the height of their commercial powers, they never really became household faces—or really even names. And that worked fine for a while. But by the time 1987 rolled around, image had become nearly as important as sound. MTV wasn’t just a novelty anymore—it was the gatekeeper. If your band didn’t “look” the part, your music often didn’t get heard.
Which may be part of the reason Inside Information remains one of Foreigner’s most overlooked efforts. It's unfortunate, too, because the band had lost none of their ability to craft sharp, melodic, hook-heavy rock songs. The hits, modest as they were, still hold up today. Say You Will is a quintessential Foreigner single—punchy, polished, and impossibly catchy. I Don’t Want to Live Without You, while softer, shows that Lou Gramm could still sell a ballad with effortless sincerity. But this was also the era where the video often trumped the music, and in that department, Foreigner always seemed to be playing catch-up. The videos for both of the above tracks were bland and forgettable—one of them didn’t even feature the band. If you were looking for visual flair, you looked elsewhere. The music still had teeth. The marketing didn’t.
Beyond the singles, Inside Information has more to offer than its reputation suggests. The opening track Heart Turns to Stone is a gritty, radio-ready rocker with all the classic Foreigner trademarks. The closer, A Night to Remember, is equally strong—anthemic and full of atmosphere. There’s a bit of a lull in the middle—Counting Every Minute and the title track don’t leave much of an impression—but that’s a minor knock on what is otherwise a very solid album.
Of course, the timing didn’t help either. Lou Gramm had just released his first solo album a few months prior, and the tension between him and Mick Jones was reportedly escalating. Gramm’s solo work even sounded quite a bit like Foreigner, which may have siphoned off some of the attention this record might otherwise have received. The fact that the band didn’t even tour behind the album—and only played a handful of shows in Europe—didn’t exactly help its profile either.
Sales-wise, it went platinum, which would be a crowning achievement for most bands. But for Foreigner, coming off a string of multi-platinum behemoths, it felt like a step down. And given the internal strain, the band barely touched this material in later live sets, which only added to its obscurity over time.
Still, it deserves far more credit than it gets. While Inside Information may not have redefined the band or the genre, it’s a testament to Foreigner’s staying power at a time when most of their contemporaries were fading fast. Strong songs, strong performances, and a few classic moments—underrated is an understatement.
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