Johnny Foreigner – Forwards! Review

Raucous indie rockers Johnny Foreigner are back with the brand-new album, Forwards!, an album that follows on from their triumphant return in 2024 with How To Be Hopeful – an album that was applauded for being emotionally charged and more mature than previous records. But does the band continue that trajectory, or are they back to creating albums that sound like chaotic house parties?

Johny Foreigner have always had a way with album arrangements. They have this ability to create something far more than just a collection of songs. While albums telling stories isn’t a novel concept, the way this band does it feels wholly unique. It’s an entire experience with a back-and-forth between full songs, clever interludes, and titles that expand the overall storytelling the band is putting out there.

Forwards! is no different. Described as a “small collection of songs”, this album brings the focus to the band’s home city of Birmingham, with titles referencing the city in some way or form. According to the band, the album consists of “6 actual songs” and “4 cursed field recordings”. The track The New Navigation, for example, is pinched from a song from the 18th century song, Birmingham Lads (The New Navigation).

This is an album that looks inward at the city of Birmingham and isn’t afraid to touch on some of the more controversial parts of the city’s history, such as the Priestley Riots. Nor is it an album afraid to see the similarities between that and the current era of strikes, fires, and protests. While it’s not necessarily a love letter to the city, it does shine a light on how this Midlands city is a miniature encapsulation of what’s happening in the wider country.

All of this is delivered in Johnny Foreigner‘s signature chaos, a chaos that many haven’t heard from the band since their earlier album Waited Up Til It Was Light. Forwards! is an album that brings together everything the band has done since their debut in 2008 and smushed them all into one record, and sure, there are a handful of filler tracks, but the big 6, as the band mentions, really do bring the noise.

I’ve always really enjoyed how vocalists Alexei Berrow and Kelly Parker juxtapose one another, Berrow with loud, barky vocals and Parker with softer sung vocals. They’ve both always managed to intertwine in such a way that is intrinsically Johnny Foreigner. That’s no different with Forwards! as the two continue to bounce off one another with catchy hooks and interesting melodies.

Johnny Foreigner bring a sort of sound that makes you feel like you’re part of something. Previously, it felt like a more adolescent, happy-go-lucky party vibe; then we matured into something that touched on emotions and happiness, to mature further, looking at a city that raised them and how years of tension have shaped the city and continue to do so – though not always for the better.

It’s this growth that, I feel, makes Johnny Foreigner what they are. They’ve grown along with their audience; they’ve experienced and learned, and they’re sharing that knowledge. They’re seeing what many of us are experiencing in the UK right now, and they’re making sure to speak out about it. It also helps that, instrumentally, the band are as gritty as ever with their blend of indie punk, math-pop, and post-hardcore rhythms.