Even though they were unwelcome in 1994, Foreigner came back and released their strongest album in years. The previous album, Unusual Heat, came out three years earlier with a new lead singer Johnny Edwards, and completely sank without a trace.  For Mr. Moonlight, Lou Gramm was back at the mic and singing better than ever.

Unlike the last album with Gramm, 1987’s Inside Information, most of the songs on this album were collaborations between band leader and guitarist Mick Jones and Gramm, as they had been on most of the heyday albums. The album leads off with a typical Foreigner rocker ‘Under the Gun’.  It’s the next three songs were the album truly comes into it’s own.  The terrific ‘Rain’ into the only song to get any sort of airplay ‘Until The End of Time’ are heads and tails above anything on the previous two albums.  The next song, the quirky ‘White Lie’ is an upbeat, chorus heavy, almost singalong tune.

The album gets a little weird with ‘Big Dog’ but rebounds quickly with ‘Real World’.  The rest of the album stays close to the Foreigner heart, including final song ‘Hand On My Heart’ which ends the album with a whimper.  Sometimes a slower song work as the final track, but in this case it really is a letdown.

As with many veteran rock groups of the day radio had completely ignored them to play a barrage of grunge and alternative rock.  A recent interview with Gramm had him lament that fans couldn’t find the album in the stores and DJs refused to play the new songs even during interviews with the band.

Fans of Foreigner should check Mr. Moonlight out if anything to listen to what could possibly be the last album with Gramm on vocals.  This is a forgotten album, that should have had it’s day.