Album review: LOU GRAMM – Questions And Answers (3CD Atlantic Years Anthology, 1987-89)

LOU GRAMM - Questions And Answers (3CD Atlantic Years Anthology, 1987-89)

Cherry Red [Release date 28.05.21]

As with most rock bands, the singer and guitarist driving force is a dynamic that ultimately shudders to a halt, at least on a temporary basis: Steven Tyler/ Joe Perry. Mick Jagger/ Keith Richards. Robert Plant/ Jimmy Page, and so on.

The differences that developed between Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and Mick Jones in the mid eighties are well documented. The band’s 1987 album, Inside Information, is quoted by many critics as the one that showed the cracks. And that despite spinning off 3 top Forty singles, and selling well over a million. Failure should always be so sweet.
One way or the other, it was the last album release from that specific line up.

CD1: Gramm began his short solo career the same year, with Ready Or Not, which just about claimed him a unique identity rather than just a “that Foreigner guy” reference.

Given everybody believed that Mick Jones was the real songwriting talent in Foreigner, the album was something of a revelation. Full of tough but buoyant melodies, guided by Pat Moran’s sure hand at the studio mixing desk, it generated urgent, polished rock tracks with a gleaming pop immediacy, like the title track, ‘Ready Or Not’, and the breathless, Top Five single hit ‘Midnight Blue’.

The sparse rock orchestration and a driving percussive thrust gave the album’s inevitable ballads, ‘If I Don’t Have You’ and ‘Lover Come Back’ more of a contemporary relevance than the Inside Information material.

CD2: Long Hard Look followed in 1989. Produced this time by multi award winning producer, Peter (Zappa/Chicago) Wolf.

Wolf’s airy, clean production sound doesn’t suit everyone. It gets accused of lacking warmth. At other times it is the perfect fit. Nils Lofgren had contributed his smoothed out guitar crunch on Ready Or Not, and here channels his inner Bartok on the stripped back, spine tingling ‘Just Between You and Me’, a top ten hit in the USA and Canada.

Driven by Dann (Giant) Huff’s chiming axework, ‘Angel With A Dirty Face’ kicks of the album. Top Forty hit, ‘True Blue Love’ again shows Wolf’s arrangement skills, setting Gramm’s aching vocal performance against a galloping beat, soughing strings and a softly spoken choir.

CD3: The third CD in the package – Questions & Answers / Single Versions – is a welcome surprise.

It includes 2 edits of Gramm’s song, ‘Lost In The Shadows’, from the “Lost Boys” movie soundtrack. A rockier version of ‘Ready Or Not’ is a nicely tweaked suprise, and an extended version of ‘Midnight Blue’ is amazingly compelling.

The ‘Q&A’ track is in fact a 1987 interview with Gramm by New York’s syndicated rock journalist Dan Neer, providing some insights into the genesis and recording of Gramm’s debut solo album. A nice way to finish, and indeed a clever touch. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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