Foreigner
No End In Sight: The Very Best Of
2008, Rhino Records
Rating:4/5

Another ‘Best Of’ packages from one of Rocks greatest bands ever. The thing that sets this career spanning collection apart from previous releases is that this one contains a brand new studio track featuring new vocalist Kelly Hansen (Hurricane) as well as some newly recorded live tracks. We all know and love Foreigner (or most of it) so there is no reason to dwell on the classics “Jukebox Hero”, “Cold As Ice”, “Dirty White Boy”…… The focus will be on the new track and the trio of Live songs that are available only on this double disc collection.

The new studio track; “Too Late” features the new Foreigner with Kelly Hansen on vocals as well as Jeff Pilson on bass and Jason Bonham. Vocally Kelly is similar  in style to original singer Lou Gramm but Foreigner without Lou is like VanHalen without Roth. For the most part the general public identify with the voice of a band and not so much a guitar sound. Once you take that away the distinctiveness is gone and you are left with is not much more than a tribute. The song itself is a great rock number that is very reminiscent of mid 70’s Foreigner. It is near impossible to get past the fact that the only ‘Real’ member left is Mick Jones. The trio of live songs are great cover renditions of some of the group’s best known compositions.

Overall a great collection of Foreigner material with some related songs tacked on at the end. These add-on’s just shouldn’t be passed off as Foreigner as it lessens the stature of the name.