Tag

AOR

1. 

   Two Eclipses: Hardline and the Album That Couldn't Be Followed

   In April 1992, a Journey guitarist, two members of Bad English, and two brothers from Brooklyn released an arena-ready hard rock album into a marketplace that no longer existed. Ten years later, a different configuration of mostly the same band released the follow-up. Almost nobody heard either one. A look at Double Eclipse and II — the two albums that bracketed Hardline's actual commercial life, and the gap between them that made the second album the strange artifact it became.

   By Deep Cuts · Issue 03 · 10 July 2026 · 16 min read

2. 

   The Hottest Cold Streak: Foreigner's Unusual Heat and the End of an Era

   After thirteen years and seven multi-platinum albums, Foreigner's voice walked out. The band that remained — Mick Jones, three sidemen, and an Atlantic Records frontman named Johnny Edwards — made a record that should have worked. It peaked at number 117 on the Billboard 200, the worst chart position of the band's career, and effectively ended Foreigner's run as a commercial force. A long play on the album that exposed exactly what Foreigner had always been — and what it could not be without Lou Gramm.

   By Deep Cuts · Issue 02 · 19 June 2026 · 18 min read