Agent Provocateur (album) explained

Agent Provocateur
Type:Album
Artist:Foreigner
Cover:Foreigner - Agent Provocateur.JPG
Released:December 14, 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
Prev Title:Records
Prev Year:1982
Next Title:Inside Information
Next Year:1987

Agent Provocateur is the fifth studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on December 14, 1984.[1] The album was the band's only number-one album in the United Kingdom, and it reached the top five in the United States. Although album sales were lower than their previous work in the US, it contains the band's biggest hit single, the album’s love theme "I Want to Know What Love Is", which is their only #1 single in the UK and the US, 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 US. The album was certified Platinum in the UK by the BPI, and triple Platinum in the US by the RIAA.[2]

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.[3] [4] Then, once writing had been completed in September that year, official recording began in early October in New York with Horn.[3] [4] Eventually, things fell apart around the time of the Christmas holidays when the band had joined him in England to resume the recording: Horn soon backed out of the project, feeling that he and the band were heading in different directions and that it was not going to work out.[3] [4] [5] In hindsight, the band recognised that Horn's production style wasn't really suited to their music, according to drummer Dennis Elliott: "he tried to make us more electronic than we wanted to be".[5] 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.[6] 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:

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".[7] 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.[3] 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."[8]

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Eduardo Rivadavia rated "A Love in Vain" as Foreigner's fifth-most underrated song, calling it a "synth-powered cry of desperation" and a "dark-horse favorite of fans."[9]

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.[10]

Billboard said that in "Tooth and Nail" the band flex "post-punk power chords with gusto."[11]

Personnel

Foreigner

Additional personnel

Production

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1984-1985)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[12] 2
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[13] 5
French Albums (SNEP)[14] 15
Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)[15] 20
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[16] 6

Year-end charts

Notes and References

  1. Web site: BPI.
  2. https://www.riaa.com/gp/database/search_results.asp RIAA database
  3. News: High profile is foreign to group's singer. Dennis. Hunt. The Sacramento Bee. April 21, 1985.
  4. "What's in a name?". Keith. Sharp. 1988. Rock Express Magazine. February 23, 2021.
  5. Foreigner: Foreign Affairs . Jonathan . James . International Musician And Recording World . April 1985 . 28-29, 31 . April 12, 2024.
  6. Foreigner still loyal to records. Paul. Grein. January 26, 1985. Billboard magazine. 41 & 43.
  7. Web site: Trevor Horn. Torsten. Schmidt. 2011. redbullmusicacademy.com. February 23, 2021.
  8. Zeller . Craig . April 1985 . Foreigner: Agent Provocateur (Atlantic) . . July 25, 2018 . . subscription .
  9. Web site: Top 10 Underrated Foreigner Songs. 2022-01-08. Rivadavia, Eduardo. Ultimate Classic Rock. May 2, 2013.
  10. Web site: The Top 10 Most Underrated Foreigner Songs. Dome, Malcolm. Louder Sound. Classic Rock. 17 June 2016 . 2022-06-17.
  11. Billboard. Reviews. December 15, 1984. 2023-02-10. 72.
  12. Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 116.
  13. Book: Pennanen, Timo. Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972. 1st. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. Helsinki. 2006. 978-951-1-21053-5 . fi.
  14. Web site: Le Détail des Albums de chaque Artiste – F . Infodisc.fr . fr . 9 June 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141022124902/http://infodisc.fr/Album_F.php . 22 October 2014 . Select Foreigner from the menu, then press OK.
  15. Web site: Classifiche. Musica e Dischi. it. 27 May 2022. Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Foreigner".
  16. Book: Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005. Oricon Entertainment. Roppongi, Tokyo. 2006. 4-87131-077-9. ja.
  17. Web site: Top Selling Albums of 1985 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart. Recorded Music New Zealand. 3 February 2022.