Arena relocated to Los Angeles in 1996 and 1997, to record her third solo studio album, "In Deep" (18 August 1997), which became her second number-one album in Australia. For the Australian version of the album Arena co-wrote eleven of its twelve tracks – her fellow writers include Mick Jones (of Foreigner), David Tyson, Christopher Ward, Dean McTaggart, Pam Reswick and Steve Werfel. The album included her cover version of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", originally written by Jones who produced Arena's version. "In Deep" "was recorded predominantly live in the studio in an attempt to bring the material closer to Tina's stage performance persona" with four tracks produced by Tyson and the rest by Jones. "In Deep" was certified 3× platinum in Australia. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic found the US version of the album showed that "Her own songs, co-written with a team of others, are perfectly good contemporary pop/rock, and she sings them with passionate commitment" and it was "brimming with potential hit singles (it spawned three in Australia)."