Johnny Foreigner / Johnny Foreigner Vs Everything

Johnny Foreigner
Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything
(Alcopop! Records)
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When the world ends – and let’s face it, if Katie Price is looking for a successor-cum-human-shield it can’t be that far away – it’s good to know that at least one band will be going down fighting.
The band in question? Johnny Foreigner, who, rather than watch the world collapse around them, are raising their fists and yelling “COME ON THEN” at everything. That’s right: everything.

You can see why they might be a bit feisty, too: album three was a backs-to-the wall effort; a triumph of dedication over adversity. Stripped of their major label backing (and the money/Grammy-nominated producers that came with it), the band faced the daunting task of, as they put it, “making a way better record with a way worse budget”.

Initial impressions suggest that they’ve come up trumps. The chaotic vocal arrangements and short-shifting time signatures peppering tracks like ‘Electricity vs. The Dead’, ‘What Drummers Get’ and ‘The Swell… Like Neverwhere’ demonstrate that they’ve lost none of their intensity throughout their various trials and tribulations – and that’s something which should be commended.

The scattered pockets of calm, notably the excellent ‘200x’ and ‘Johnny Foreigner vs. You’, also conspire to give the album an almost Los Campesinos!-like structure – which is actually our one and only concern. With the release of Hello Sadness just round the corner, it would be easy to pick up this album and quickly move on - or simply overlook it completely. We’d urge you not to though, as there’s certainly enough on here worthy of your attention.