Foreigner – Agent Provocateur
Joe Siegler
- AllMyVinyl #148
- Band: Foreginer
- Album Title: Agent Provocateur
- Release Date: 14 Dec 1984
- Date purchased: 4 Jun 2025
- Location purchased: Discogs Marketplace
- Color of vinyl: black
- Number of discs: 1
- Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]
Foreigner in the early/mid 80’s was a beast. Their earlier work from the late 70’s are legendary stuff, and when they moved into the 80’s they dropped the mega hit album “4” (which I’ve written about elsewhere – but needs an update). The 4 album was a monster. With stuff like Juke Box Hero, Urgent, Waiting for a Girl Like You.. Where do you go after a masterpiece like that? It was gonna be hard to beat, but like any band at the time, you soldier on with new material. That’s what this album is. “The next one” after 4.
They went into the studio with Trevor Horn as a producer (which is an amusing sidetrack for me as Horn was the lead vocalist for Yes for one album – and it has my all time favorite Yes song on it – Tempus Fugit, but I digress). After some time working on the album, Horn departed, allegedly to work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood. This makes for one of those sidetracks I’ve always wondered about – who produced what on the final album. I can’t find a good answer for that. Ultimately I suppose it doesn’t matter, but those are the exact kinds of stories I like finding out information about. Lineup wise, the band was the same as the “4” album. Lou Gramm, Mick Jones, Rick Wills, Dennis Elliott. This album came out in what is Foreigner’s most stable lineup. 4 / Agent / Inside Information all had the same lineup, and then it blew up after that. These same four went into the 70’s too – the last of those albums had the same four guys, although Foreigner was a six piece at that point. So yeah, I love a good lineup story, and this is one where I don’t get to write about who changed from the last one to this one. An oddity, given the chaos their lineup will be a couple of years after this.
My biggest memory of this from the old days was the tour. I saw Foreigner on the tour for this album in Philadelphia. Joe Walsh opened. My memory has this show filed as excellent. One thing that stuck out for me was their live performance of “I Wanna Know What Love Is”. I’ll write about the song itself later, but for the show.. They had a choir with them to sing the backup vocals. What I never found out is if they drug these folks on tour with them just to sing that one song, or they hired a choir in each town for that. Never found out that issue, but visually it was one of my live early concert highlights. At this point I’d only been going to concerts for a little less than 3 years, and Foreigner was already the first band I’d seen more than once (as they were at my first ever concert in ’82). But the choir on stage singing that song is a visual thing that’s stuck in my mind. In doing prep for this article, I looked up the music videos (like I do for all albums), and discovered there’s two versions of the video for “That Was Yesterday”. There’s a regular length one and an “Extended Edit”. The extended version shows some of the choir rehearsals for “I Wanna Know” as well as live footage of Foreigner with the band – and I was stunned when I watched that, as it’s EXACTLY what’s in my memory of the song. It’s rare I can point to some music video on Youtube and go “THAT IS EXACTLY what is my memory for this thing”. I can hear, and I love that. It’s a silly point to write a paragraph about but these intro pieces on my article are nothing more than my memories, so here we are. It’s also the last time I’ve seen Foreigner, too. I tried to see them a few times in modern times, but was prevented for some reason (weather, health issues).
Given Agent Provocateur immediately followed the 4 album this was a day 1 purchase. What I don’t remember now 40 years later if I bought it on vinyl or cassette (or both). I have neither of those in 2025 if I did buy them. I definitely would have bought it right away back then given it came out when I was 19 and was still in prime music purchasing years. It wasn’t in the collection of vinyl that my brother rescued from our mom’s basement, so I have no memory of what happened to my original purchase. It’s for that reason that in the summer of 2025, I happened upon a copy in good shape quite cheaply on Discogs marketplace, so I snapped it up. I have it on CD in my archives, but I don’t know when I bought that now. It wouldn’t have been new, as CD’s were still hella expensive in 1984, and as I’ve stated elsewhere I didn’t get my first CD player until December of 1987. It actually surprised me a bit that I didn’t have this on vinyl from the old days, but that’s been rectified now.
Tooth and Nail – This album starts off with a bang. While Foreigner has never been known as a hard rock band, this song is the closest they come to that in my opinion. As I lean metal first, this song holds a very strong appeal to me. I like all of Foreigner’s styles, but this song in particular is a big favorite. A hard driving beat, loud screaming guitars – and a rather aggressive vocal delivery by Lou Gramm delivers a really in your face “bang” of an album opener. I also love the sound in the opening before any vocals – I don’t even know how to describe it – some “rolling sound” that accents the intro. Might be a drum thing? I’m not sure. Played it for my daughter and she thought it was a wood block – which doesn’t sound wrong. I love that accent here in the song. I’d still like the song if it wasn’t there, but that kind of accent just works for me. I usually send this song to people I’m trying to get to listen to Foreigner who don’t usually like Foreigner’s style of music because they lean harder – this song scratches that itch. I really REALLY wish Foreigner did more songs like this – they can obviously rock – this song is Exhibit A in the attack against those that say they can only do sappy ballads. The label released five singles from this album, and this was NOT one of them.
If you don’t like the “sap” of I Want To Know What Love is, then Tooth and Nail is the perfect antidote.
That Was Yesterday – Pretty much the entire album is a come down from the opener of Tooth & Nail – I remember back in the day gearing up for a damn great album, and then this happened. That sounds like it’s bad. It most certainly is not, but it’s NOT the metal leaning hard sound of the opener. This was the second single off the album, and has a very catchy chorus. The melody through the song is mostly the same from start to finish, only it builds in power as the song progresses. It’s subtle, it’s not like there’s a bang when the level goes up. By the time it’s over it’s got a very good power to it, and ends up being a strong track. I especially like Gramm’s vocal delivery – he’s got a buttery smooth delivery at times, and this song is peak form for him, I believe. It’s the strongest part of the song – there’s no real guitar solo, and most of the instruments are just “there”, but putting all the pieces together and it works. I thoroughly enjoy this song in 2025 when back in the 80’s I was more indifferent towards it.
I Want To Know What Love Is – Let’s face it. Most people who know ANYTHING AT ALL for Foreigner will know this. I’d submit it’s by far their most well known track off any of their 9 studio albums roughly 100 or so studio tracks (I didn’t count them). I should really NOT like this. It’s the “sappy ballad” and is Exhibit A by folks who write off Foreigner as a rock band because they “only do stuff like this”. Repeating – I should not like this song. However, I *LOVE* this song. Normally when a band does a ballad that dominates their catalog (Night Ranger & Sister Christian, and say Motley Crue & Home Sweet home), I tend to not like them, because in my eyes it’s an aberration, it’s no what they’re really known for. But this still works for me. I loved it then, I love it now, and it also is in tht spot with me that when I hear it, I almost always play it more than one time in a row, because I’m enjoying it too much. It *IS* a slow ballad – no doubt, but what absolutely makes this work is the gospel choir doing background vocals in the second half of the song. It does make me wish I could sing (well), as it’s the kind of vocal harmonics that just make me want to join in. I suppose that’s the hallmark of a good song, that it gets you moving to the point where you want to participate beyond just passive aural digestion.
I even stopped when listening to this one (it really was on writing about this) and asked her “Why the hell do I like this so much? I really can’t figure it out – it’s totally outside my musical circle in every way” She just shrugged her shoulders as I then proceeded to play it for the third time in a row.
One last comment about this song. When I checked out the official video, I noticed this in the comments section on Youtube. They’re spot on. “I’m 72 years old and I think this kind of music got forgotten when the world began to hate so much. To those who still listen to it and remember the world as it was. I can only say aren’t we lucky!” Thanks to crocket1042 for the sentiment.
Growing Up the Hard Way – The opening keyboard sound for this track reminds me of something Genesis would do. It’s also got a nice bass sound early on before the vocals start, because the early part is pretty quiet. That Genesis sounding keyboard sound runs through the song at times. This one is not one of my favorites on the album – it has a dated mid 80’s sound to it more than anything else on the album. In the chorus, they kick in the full band and it sounds like a rock song there but for this one the disparate sounds the various parts have don’t mesh terribly well for me. I don’t actively dislike it, it’s just “ok”. The guitar solo is pretty muffled. The only real positive here is some of Gramm’s vocals – in particular, the line “he’s come a long way in life”.
Reaction to Action – One of my favorite kind of tracks. A 3:30 fast track. Comes in, makes its statement, and gets out. This goes quite well with Tooth and Nail, it’s cut from the same cloth. Has a rather hard rock edge to it, has some good powerful drums that would make Cozy Powell proud, I think. It does have some of the keyboard stuff in the middle, which stops it from being a 5/5 track for me. But the hard rock stuff here definitely works. Has a nice guitar solo, not one you’d expect, it thematically sounds different than the rest of the track. This song is one I keep forgetting about, I just wish they’d drop the keyboard stuff in the chorus, the song wouldn’t be impacted at all – just improved by that. I read where Lou Gramm says it’s his favorite song off the album. I don’t know if I’d go quite that high with it, but it is a good track.
One thing about this song that puzzled me listening today. The song starts off with a few notes, stops for a few seconds, and then starts again with the main part of the song. My memory remembers something different – where the first few seconds would play, someone would say “one one one”, then it would pause and then restart. The version that’s living in my head wasn’t on the album, it’s not on the video, or the “single edit” I saw online too. Does anyone know this version I’m thinking of, and where it came from? Or am I thinking of an intro from a different song entirely? If you know the answer about what I’m talking about here, drop me a line. I’d like to know.
Stranger in my Own House – Starts off with JUST Lou Gramm and no instruments. When they kick in it’s got a big heavy bass sound to the song. It’s a great sound – something I would have loved to have heard more of from Foreigner. Just sat here and jammed out to the beat, quite liked this, despite not saying much. When they get to the chorus, it’s got a larger guitar sound than in the verse sections. It definitely changes its main musical sound a few times – something I like. Another track I tend to forget about because of the utter dominance the big hits have here over the album tracks. If you like this song, I suggest checking out the song “Big Dog” off the Mr. Moonlight album – has the same kind of vibe. The back end of the song is a bit “repeat-y” – it just keeps saying the song title over and over again. I tend to not like that.
A Love in Vain – This is the opposite of Stranger – the vibe that starts this song finishes it and doesn’t very too much. There’s little in this track for me to glom onto and expound upon. It’s just kind of “there”. No guitar solo, no soaring vocals – in fact, Lou feels mixed towards the back a lot in this song, something that isn’t usually done on Foreigner tracks with him. Normally when I’m “eh” about a song I’ll say “it’s ok but I don’t hate it”, but this is just boring – there’s nothing for me to grasp onto and enjoy.
Down on Love – Another ballad track. I don’t care for this one unlike the far more successful ballad at Track 3 on the album.
Two Different Worlds – Exactly the same as Down on Love. Really slow, kind of “who cares, there’s nothing musically adventuresome” on this song. Next!
She’s Too Tough – The start of this song really reminds me of the song Shakedown by Bob Seger for the Beverly Hills Cop II soundtrack. It isn’t that of course, but man the opening really reminds me of it. After the disappointment of the last two songs, the album at least finishes out with an upbeat song. It’s not a flat out rocker like Tooth & Nail or Reaction to Action, but it’s a got a harder edge then the last four songs. I don’t think it would place super high on anyone’s list of best Foreigner songs, but it’s enjoyable enough. I quite liked the guitar solo, although it was way too short. This was the B- side to the “Reaction to Action” single, and they’re paired well in that regard. When it ended, I didn’t see the end of the song coming, so that’s always a good sign that I was into it. It ends with a hard cut vs a fadeout, so there’s a distinct “end” the album. Truth be told, I had forgotten about this song totally, so it was like listening to something new. It probably got lost because the two songs preceding it are pretty sappy, and I likely checked out by this point. As I said, not the greatest song, but definitely good, a pleasant surprise at the end of the album.
Overall this is a good album. It’s not a total banger, because there’s some weak shit on the second side – almost like they were trying to do another successful ballad song, and neither of those worked. However, the songs on this album REALLY work, and there’s some absolute bangers on here no doubt. There’s more that works than doesn’t so overall the album is a definite positive. It’s the saggy parts of Side B that keep this album from being an absolute must have. As it is, the singles a great, there’s quite a few awesome album tracks, so yeah, it’s worth having for sure. Just not a 10 out of 10 type album. If you’re a Foreigner fan, then you definitely should have this. If you’re not a Foreigner fan, well, perhaps not – you can get by with a Greatest Hits album to pick up the best tracks here.
One interesting thing I noticed as I was wrapping this up. The black side of the vinyl lists all the songs, but not in the order they’re on the album, but in alphabetical order. Not a ton of albums do that, they tend to list them in the order they’re on the album as. I wonder why – someone’s “artistic choice” I imagine.
Not that my post here will make ANY difference, but I really want Foreigner to re-release their 1995 album “Mr Moonlight” – but on vinyl. It was never pressed on vinyl originally, and I always had a soft spot for that album.
