Mr. Moonlight (1995)
1. Under the Gun
2. Rain
3. Until the End of Time
4. White Lie
5. Big Dog
6. The Real World
7. All I Need To Know
8. Hole in My Soul
9. I Keep Hoping
10.Running the Risk
11.Hand on My Heart
For longtime fans of Foreigner, Mr. Moonlight brought a very welcome return—Lou Gramm was back. After a few teaser tracks on 1992’s The Very Best and Beyond, there was no guarantee it was anything more than a brief reunion. This record, however, confirmed it. He was in. For now, anyway.
There were still the usual shake-ups. Dennis Elliott and Rick Wills were gone, and while both were longtime members, their absence doesn’t really register here. With all due respect, the only truly essential pieces have always been Mick Jones and Lou Gramm. When those two were in sync, the magic usually followed. That said, even the lineup photo couldn’t stay current—rumor has it the drummer had to be airbrushed out of the album art because he’d left before the record was even released. Business as usual.
What makes Mr. Moonlight stand out is how well it adapts to the changing musical landscape. This was 1995. Grunge had already exploded, alt-rock was everywhere, and most of the ‘70s and ‘80s arena giants were either riding the nostalgia circuit or retreating into the studio. The worst move Foreigner could’ve made was to try to sound like it was still 1984. Thankfully, they didn’t.
This is a more organic Foreigner—less glossy, less synth-heavy, and far more grounded in acoustic guitars, real pianos, and a more restrained production overall. It’s still very much Foreigner, but without the layers of polish that sometimes drowned their earlier work. Lou Gramm sounds fantastic throughout. Tracks like White Lie, All I Need to Know, and Rain show he still had the power and emotion that set him apart from so many of his peers. And Under the Gun—the album’s opener—channels just enough of that classic, riff-driven energy to remind you who you’re listening to. Even the ballads, Until the End of Time and Hand on My Heart, feel sincere and well-crafted. They lack the arena bombast of, say, I Want to Know What Love Is, but they work in this setting—and more importantly, they sound like they belong in the mid-‘90s rather than a decade earlier. Admittedly, the back half of the record doesn’t quite measure up. Things slow down, ideas get a bit thinner, and the momentum fades. But to be fair, this has always been part of the Foreigner experience. Very few of their albums—from Double Vision to Inside Information—were completely filler-free.
In the bigger picture, Mr. Moonlight didn’t make much of a dent commercially. Foreigner, like most of their peers, had seen their chart-topping days pass. But they kept touring, kept selling out shows, and kept delivering the songs that filled arenas in the first place. This album might not have revived their profile, but it was a worthy addition to their catalog.
As it turned out, it would also be Lou Gramm’s swan song with the band. He’d soon part ways again, this time for good. A miraculous recovery from a brain tumor, a personal transformation, and a turn toward gospel music would follow. His absence would be deeply felt in the years ahead—because whatever Foreigner would become, this was the last time it sounded like the real thing.
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