Keeping Some Dark Secrets

If you live in the U.K. you have many things for which to be thankful, nationalized health care among them. But also there is the small matter of the release of Birmingham, England indie titans Johnny Foreigner‘s full-length debut. Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light is released by Best Before Records Monday. We haven’t heard the set ourselves (well, at least not all together in a row with the CD case in our hands), but the acclaim seems largely positive, although not as effusive as it was for the release of the band’s annihilating Arcs Across The City EP. Even so, it is understandable that faced with the task of releasing its first full-length, the trio might end up with one or two tracks that are less than stellar in the running order. That said, Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light is some 13 songs in length — the band could have easily held some back, but that’s never been Johnny Foreigner‘s style. The deal has always been that the band writes songs and presents them and fans listen to them. Recall that this is an act that gave away a 16-song demo for free, and at least in the good old days would just email the tracks to you. So despite some criticism of certain tracks on the new record (even we are not crazy about “DJs Get Doubts,” although there was a time when we were on the fence about “Henning’s Favorite,” which of course we grew past), we remain largely excited to hear the entire thing from start to finish. And with huge tracks such as “Salt, Pepa And Spindarella,” “Eyes Wide Terrified” and “Our Bipolar Friends,” Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light already has hits to spare. Speaking of “Eyes Wide Terrified,” the band recorded a version of the track last fall for a Radio One session and we, uh, borrowed it from the band’s MySpace player for safe-keeping. It is slightly different from the album version, and we’re posting it below. It’s brilliant, and every time Alexei gets to the lines “I’m not that lucky, these t-shirts don’t fold themselves” we get chills.

Johnny Foreigner — “Eyes Wide Terrified” — Radio One session
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[buy Waited Up 'Til It Was Light from RecordStore.Co.Uk right here even though with the exchange rate suckage; and the economy generally in the crapper; and with the fuel crisis likely never resolving because we are all fat slobs who can't ride a bike; you should instead use the money to buy groceries or a hand-cranked radio or whatnot]

Filed under: Johnny Foreigner by Jay