Foreigner Agent Provocateur 1984 Atlantic Records Vinyl LP NM in Shrink

$

30

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Agent Provocateur Studio album by  Foreigner Released December 7, 1984 Recorded October 1983−July 1984 Studio The Hit Factory and Right Track Recording (New York, NY). Genre Rock Length 42:23 Label Atlantic Producer Mick Jones, Alex Sadkin Foreigner chronology Records
(1982) Agent Provocateur
(1984) Inside Information
(1987) Singles from Agent Provocateur

1. "I Want to Know What Love Is"
   Released: November 1984
2. "That Was Yesterday"
   Released: March 1985
3. "Reaction to Action"
   Released: May 1985
4. "Down on Love"
   Released: August 1985
5. "Growing Up the Hard Way"
   Released: September 1985

Agent Provocateur is the fifth studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on December 7, 1984. The album was the band's first and only number one album in the United Kingdom, and it reached the top 5 in the United States. Although album sales were lower than their previous work in the U.S., it contains the band's biggest hit single, "I Want to Know What Love Is", which is their only #1 single in the UK and the U.S., staying at the top spot for three and two weeks respectively. The follow-up single, "That Was Yesterday", also proved to be a sizeable hit, peaking at #12 in the U.S. The album was certified Platinum in the UK by the BPI, and triple Platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA.

Recording

Within nearly two years of releasing 4, writing and preproduction for this album began as early as June 1983 in New York, with producer Trevor Horn. Then, once writing had been completed in September that year, official recording began in early October in London with Horn. Eventually, things started to fall apart around the time of the Christmas holidays - even though co-producer & guitarist Mick Jones recalled that it began after a day of recording - due to Horn being more concerned about the performance of the singles he had produced (such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood) in Europe than the Foreigner record. Eventually, another month was spent trying to look for another producer to fill his shoes, subsequently hiring Alex Sadkin, who was busy finishing the Thompson Twins' Into the Gap album. Sadkin helped rekindle the project when it was on the verge of total collapse, but despite that, according to Jones, recording still never seemed to end: the sessions had been dogged from the very start and continued to remain unfocused. Sadkin agreed when reminiscing on the project in 1987:

"The Foreigner project a couple years back, on the other hand, just seemed to go on and on. Everyone, including the band, got really pissed off with it. They’re used to it, though, and I wasn’t, so it just threw me. I couldn’t believe what was going on! There was a problem with people not coming in; Mick [Jones], who is the leader, not showing up for hours and hours, and so that obviously would really slow it down. Then the songs wouldn’t be really ready. While the album was being mixed the lyrics were still being written! Things were being changed right up to the last minute, and that is what took a long time. That is why I don’t want to go into the studio when somebody wants to write the stuff there; it just takes too long and it isn’t worth it, it doesn’t come out right. You can’t write properly in the studio because you’re under pressure. How can you really be creative when you’re watching the clock going round burning up the money?"

Even though the extent of Horn's contributions to the record is unclear, he claims to have done most of the backing tracks, including for "I Want To Know What Love Is". According to singer Lou Gramm, owing to the difference in production styles between Sadkin and Horn, only two of the tracks that had been cut with the latter were kept on the record, though it is unclear which ones. A total of nine months had been spent on recording the album.

Critical reception

By the time of Agent Provocateur, Foreigner was frequently savaged by the contemporary rock music press. A review in Creem read: "On this, their latest excursion into the gaping jaws of pulverizing mediocrity, our boys continue to wrestle with an all-too-turgid identity crisis — they still can't decide whether it's stupider to aspire to poor man's Led Zep status or settle for being a weightier version of Chicago. Some swinging choice, huh? Either way they lose and this record is simply jammed with one dull defeat after another."

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Eduardo Rivadavia rated "A Love in Vain" as Foreigner's 5th most underrated song, calling it a "synth-powered cry of desperation" and a "dark-horse favorite of fans." Classic Rock critic Malcolm Dome rated two songs from Agent Provocateur as being among Foreigner's 10 most underrated – "Stranger in My Own House" at #6 and "Tooth and Nail" – which he describes as "the antidote to 'I Want to Know What Love Is'" – at #2.

Track listing