Lou Gramm - Released

It’s been fifty years since Lou Gramm co-founded Foreigner and seventeen since he released an album.  Now, he’s back with Released, a collection of ten songs that were recorded in the eighties when he was working on his prior solo albums and have now been finished.  With the exception of one track, they were co-written with Bruce Turgon  (a pre-Foreigner bandmate in Black Sheep and often a Gramm collaborator over the years), who contributes a variety of instruments on all but one track.  Among the other contributors are Vivian Campbell playing guitar on one track, Tony Franklin playing bass on three and Lou’s brother Ben Gramm playing drums on four.  The album opens with “Young Love” and you have to wonder why this one was left on the shelf.  It has all the elements of a classic arena rock hit with some excellent guitar from Vivian Campbell (it’s possible this was left over from the Shadow King sessions with three-fourths of the band appearing on the track) and Gramm’s vocals sounding great.  “Lightning Strikes” is a strong, hard-driving rocker, and with a bit of a funky swagger, “Walk The Walk” is a fun track that is kinda different for Gramm.  Although the vocals are a little weaker “Long Gone” is a decent midtempo track and rockers “Heart And Soul” and “Long Hard Look,” another midtempo tune, often bring to mind classic Foreigner.  Originally released on the Long Hard Look album, “True Blue Love” is here in an unplugged version with Gramm accompanied by piano and keyboards and has an outstanding emotional vocal performance from him.  “Deeper Side Of Love” has more of a modern day AOR sound with a lot of emphasis on the keyboards which are full of big solos (while not in a bad way, his vocals on this one are distinctively different).  The album closes strongly with the solid rock ballad “Time Heals The Pain” and “Word Gets Around,” which has an energetic, hard rock edge.  Even though it's a collection of older leftover tracks, Released holds together very well as a unit and makes a welcome addition to Gramm's discography.  

(HNE Recordings)