The Very Best...And Beyond
falls somewhere between
Records
and
Rhino
's anthology as an entertaining trip through the bulk of
Foreigner
's biggest hits. With a sufficient 17 tracks, this collection leaves out only three of the band's Top 40 hits and extends up to 1987's
Inside Information
album. But best of all, the album combines the strongest of
's early material (
"Juke Box Hero,"
"Urgent,"
"Hot Blooded"
) with the most appealing cuts from the band's post-
4
releases, such as
"I Want to Know What Love Is,"
the only number one hit from the platinum-selling
Agent Provocateur
album, and
"Say You Will"
from
. Extending past
' ten tracks, songs like
"That Was Yesterday"
"I Don't Want to Live Without You"
prove that the band could still churn out some amicable
pop/rock
material while focusing on an older audience base, with
Lou Gramm
toning down his vocals a couple of notches to appease more mature fans. More than anything else,
does an excellent job of representing
's emergence into a softer
rock
sound by channeling the band's talents rather than truly depleting them altogether. For anyone wanting to dive even deeper into
's career, then the double-disc
Jukebox Heroes
is definitely the next step. [A repackaged edition was released in 2007, with the track list unchanged.] ~ Mike DeGagne