Lou Gramm digs into his '80s archives for new solo album, 'Released'

Former Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm's new solo album, Released, is out now, made up of previously unreleased songs he recorded in the '80s for his previous solo albums.

While it’s been decades since he first recorded some of these songs, Gramm tells ABC Audio he always knew they existed, but notes “as time went by, I forgot I had them.”

“When I was ready to do a new album, I had some original songs written, and something just kept tugging at me to go back and listen to the songs from my previous solo albums that weren't on the album,” he says. “I remember when I started listening to ‘em that they shocked me at how good they were, but they were incomplete.”

Gramm says the songs didn’t make his original solo albums not because they were bad, but due to “time restraints,” noting in order to meet deadlines he had to choose songs "that were done, not necessarily the ones that we liked the best.”

Gramm says going back and listening to the tunes all these years later turned out to be “very emotional” for him.

“And then I started getting a little angry. 'Why didn't we finish them? Why didn't we get them on the album?'” he says, noting, “Here are these great songs sitting around for 30 years, you know, or more.”

Gramm says he hopes after listening to the record fans come away realizing he’s “a formidable songwriter, as well as a vocalist.”

“I have a style that's uniquely my own and it has elements of Foreigner in it, because that's the band I was part of,” he explains. “But it's quite a bit different than Foreigner,” noting he hopes the album lets the “difference be known.”