Unusual Heat

{{for|the racehorse|Unusual Heat (horse)}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Unusual Heat

| type = studio

| artist = Foreigner

| cover = Foreigner_-_Unusual_Heat.jpg

| border = yes

| alt =

| released = June 24, 1991{{cite magazine|title=New Albums|magazine=Music Week|page=10|date=22 June 1991}}

| recorded = 1990

| venue =

| studio = {{flatlist|

• BearTracks (Suffern, New York)
• Right Track (New York City)
• The Farmyard (Little Chalfont, England)
• Outside Studio (Hook End Manor, England)

}}

| genre = {{flatlist|

• Hard rock
• pop rock

}}

| length = {{Duration|m=51|s=30}}

| label = Atlantic

| producer = {{flatlist|

• Terry Thomas
• Mick Jones

}}

| prev_title = Inside Information

| prev_year = 1987

| next_title = The Very Best ... and Beyond

| next_year = 1992

| misc = {{Singles

| name = Unusual Heat

| type = studio

| single1 = Lowdown and Dirty

| single1date = June 10, 1991{{cite magazine|title=New Albums|magazine=Music Week|page=29|date=8 June 1991}}

| single2 = I'll Fight for You

| single2date = August 1991{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/greatrockdiscogr00stro/page/302/mode/2up|title=The Great Rock Discography|year=1995 |isbn=9780862415419 |last1=Strong |first1=Martin Charles|page=302}}

}}

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{AllMusic | class = album | id = unusual-heat-mw0000264532 | label = Foreigner: "Unusual Heat" Review | first = Joe | last = Viglione | access-date = January 10, 2016}}

| rev2 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev2Score = D{{cite web|url=https://ew.com/article/1991/07/12/unusual-heat/ |title=Unusual Heat |first=David |last=Browne |date=July 12, 1991 |access-date=November 27, 2019}}

| rev3 = Rolling Stone

| rev3Score = {{Rating|2.5|5}}{{cite book | last = Evans | first = Paul | date = 2004 | title = The New Rolling Stone Album Guide | chapter = Foreigner | edition = Completely Revised and Updated 4th | location = New York | publisher = Fireside | page = [https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/307 307] | isbn = 0-7432-0169-8 }}

}}

Unusual Heat is the seventh studio album by British-American rock band Foreigner, released in June 1991, by Atlantic Records.{{cite web | url = http://ultimateclassicrock.com/foreigner-unusual-heat/ | title = 25 Years Ago: Foreigner Start Over with 'Unusual Heat' | last1= Giles | first1 = Jeff | last2= Wardlaw| first2 = Matt | date = June 14, 2016 | publisher = Ultimate Classic Rock | access-date = January 11, 2017}} Recorded at several different studios across the state of New York and England, and produced by Terry Thomas and Mick Jones, it was the only album with lead singer Johnny Edwards, who replaced original lead singer Lou Gramm, and their final album with original drummer Dennis Elliott and longtime bassist Rick Wills.

Edwards, a veteran singer who'd done a tour of duty with Montrose and was then the frontman for another Atlantic act, Wild Horses. As Edwards told UCR in a separate interview, Wild Horses had only just signed its record deal — and although joining for Foreigner was obviously tempting for financial reasons if nothing else, he was reluctant to walk away from his own band after struggling for years to make it on his own terms.

Jones, however, was undeterred—and eager to work with a singer most fans hadn't heard of rather than hiring a big-name replacement who'd come with his own baggage. "We were in rehearsal and talks with a couple of guys who were both strong candidates and had kind of a name," he admitted. "I felt eventually that it was probably going to be better to not try and put an all-star band together, but to keep on the same kind of path with four people being involved in making a record and not really, I think I would probably say, cheapening the band at that point—cheapening the meaning and the direction of the band."{{cite web|url=http://ultimateclassicrock.com/foreigner-unusual-heat/|title=Ultimate Classic Rock}}

Unusual Heat was a commercial failure, only peaking at number 117 on the Billboard 200 chart – a sharp decline in sales comparing with all previous albums, all of which reached the Top 20 and became at least Platinum. Neither of the two singles released from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Lowdown and Dirty" only charting on the Mainstream Rock chart at #4.{{cite web |title=Billboard - Mainstream Rock |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/foreigner/chart-history/rtt/ |website=Billboard}}

The original version of the song "Ready for the Rain", demoed by the Sacramento, CA based band Northrup in the late 1980s with Johnny Edwards on lead vocals, was finally released in 2001 by Metal Mayhem Music as part of a collection of demos under the name JK Northrup.