Acoustique & More [CD+DVD]

Well Mick Jones husnae half been milking that Foreigner cash cow over the last few years. What with a new labum, new best of, acoustic CD and DVD and more, he's making up for lost time, and boosting his pension plan at the same time. I mean, fair play to that, but where will it all end?

Nowhere soon seems to be the answer, especially if this US only Walmart exclusive is anything to go by. Because this sort of wraps up everything that has gone before in one package. "Feels Like the First Time" includes two audio discs - CD One: Acoustique: The Classics Unplugged and CD Two: Juke Box Heroes. The first one is the acoustic set you can buy elsewhere, and the latter is the oldies recorded earlier this year by Jones, vocalist Kelly Hansen, bassist Jeff Pilson, multi-instrumentalist Tom Gimbel, keyboardist Michael Bluestein and drummer Mark Schulman.

The unplugged disc is rather splendid, as they amble gently through nine hits, a tribute to Elvis Presley on 'That's All Right', and a rare outing for the never released song, 'The Flame Still Burns' which, and this is one for trivia nights the world over, was was co-written by Mick Jones for 1998 cult rock movie "Still Crazy", where it was performed by Jimmy Nail fromtheightiestelly.

The greatest hits disc is an odd one, even if it good to hear Kelly Hansen breathing new life into old songs, but does anyone really need it? I suspect not. However, it does feature a brand new song, 'Save Me', which was co-written with Mick Jones' step-daughter and well-known Lindsay Lohan bidie in, Samantha Ronson. Who is also, apparently a musician.

That just leaves the third disc, "Live In Chicago", an 80 minute DVD features the band, um, live in Chicago. If you happen to live in the American colonies, you may have already seen this on PBS as part of the Public Television Rocks! series, but now the rest of us can catch up with a great live performance. It also includes a couple of songs from Hamburg in 2010, as well as band interviews and behind the scenes footage. If you live in America and have a Walmart.

It's a strange package, but it contains all you could ever want from the latest incarnation of Foreigner. And let's not forget, even sans Lou Gramm, these are some of the greatest melodic rock tunes ever written.

The "new" Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen is amazing. I know there are some hardcore Lou Gram Fans out there. Of course Lou had a great voice - but Foreigner had to progress and move forward. They have done this in the finest way possible - with the release of "Can't slow down" last year they delivered new material. Acoustique & More are their best hits played in a very special way. You can hear Kelly's powerful voice, Mick Jones extraordinary guitar skills and the rest of the band just "jamming out". Top three highlights: "Juke Box Hero", "Waiting for a girl like you" and "Long way from home"

They also recorded their greatest hits in the studio with Kelly singing them. So powerful. So edgy. I was never a great fan of the song "Double Vision" - but this new version rocks.

Highly recommended.

Ah and you get a DVD showing them live in Chicago - amazing value as well.

It's almost a master piece, great versions "acoustique". Kelly's vocals is powerfull and wonderfull as always and the band is magnific.