My Amazon Reviews: Journey "Departure"

The Last of Journey's Bug Albums
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Journey had become hungry for the success they'd tasted via "Infinity" and "Evolution," each exponentially growing in sales. Steve Perry had effectively cornered the band's microphone and Neal Schon beginning to trim his soloing down to bite-sized arena ready applause grabbers, "Departure" was their most attention ready albums to date. The band's appetite for commercial success came with a price as keyboardist Gregg Rollie called it quits soon after (to eventually be replaced by Jonathan Caine). That seemed to matter little to Journey's growing legion of fans as "Departure" soon found itself in the top ten and the initial single, the pulse pounding "Any Way You Want It" soon entered the top 20, another first for the band. Even "Walks Like a Lady," Perry's attempt at while blues and one of the more unusual singles from the band's hits period, sounded effective.

However, Journey still had lingering traces of wanted to have their pop success and prog-rocker status and eat it, too. That meant for vocal production trickery on "People and Places" and phase shifting guitars that dominate "Precious Time," along with Rollie's harmonica. And while it didn't become a breakout single, Journey's penchant for mammoth balladeering, "Stay Awhile" gives a preview of the huge hits that would start once "Escape" became an even more successful album than "Departure."

Granted, FM album rockers fell all over "Departure" when it came to picking out songs to play. But it's obvious now that Journey's albums were never better than the singles. There's a reason the original "Journey's Greatest Hits" competes with the likes of similar sets by Bob Marley, Eagles and CCR for the greatest selling albums of all-time, and that is because when the band went looking for a hit, they knew how to make them fire off. You can't get around that many of these songs are just pedestrian rockers, like "Someday Soon" (sung by Rollie) or "Line of Fire's" run of the mill guitar boogie. That doesn't discount the fact that each Journey album in this three album arc had extraordinary hits. So collect away, fanatics. The rest of us can get by on best of collections, of which there are now many.

      

My Amazon Reviews: Journey "Frontiers"

Looking for the Wild Frontiers
3 Out Of 5 Stars

When Journey released the original "Frontiers" in 1983, they were on a hot streak. Their live album had cemented their rep as one of the country's top arena acts, and "Escape" had been their biggest hit to date. With "Frontiers," they jettisoned all pretenses to being a prog-rock group and finally owned up to the fact that Steve Perry had effectively turned them into a mighty powerful singles unit, capable of delivering radio ready fodder with an ease that 80's radio lapped up like so much diet soda.

The album kicked off with the band's rocking-est top 40 entry yet, "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)." With the energetic new wavish keyboards and Perry's propulsive wail, it was a straightforward pop song with a metallic hook. Then came the juggernaut; the ballad "Faithfully" built on the success of the previous album's "Open Arms," with ex-Baby Jonathan Cain dominating the song's love-lorn hook and tale of families on the rock and roll road. Add "After The Fall" and "Send Her My Love," and you get four top forty singles out of ten tracks. Not bad for a group that began as a sci-fi prog outfit.

However, when the band tries to steer clear of the formula, there's trouble on the Frontier. Neil Schon is given some 'rockers' to unleash his guitar on, but many of these qualify as pure filler. Perry is not a very convincing rock-roarer, so when he tries to sound surly on "Chain Reaction" or "Back Talk," he's totally out of his universe. His dominance of the band as a soul crooner and pure singer minus affectations are when Journey are at their best.

This is also why the bonus tracks hit home so well. "Only The Young" was a single from the movie "Vision Quest," "Only Solutions" from the original "Tron" and "Ask The Lonely" from the John Travolta/Olivia Newton John pairing, "Two of a Kind." Each of these sounded like an insta-hit and pulled down substantial airplay at the time. Added to "Frontiers" as extras. they highlight the band's strengths and again emphasize the point of how Journey had pushed themselves into a position of that of a well-honed producer of hits.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Journey "Infinity"

Finding the secret ingredient
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Founded by a pair of Santana sidemen and recording three albums of heavy-duty fusion rock, Journey was a band with chops galore but little commercial success to show for it. Guitarist Neal Schon and their manager decided they needed something extra to push the band to a different level, so they decided to hire vocalist Steve Perry. In an effort to polish and refine their sound, they also pulled in producer Roy Thomas Baker, who was in his stride at the time with albums from The Cars and Queen. With all the elements in place, Journey set about recording their fourth album.

"Infinity" sounded like a whole new band. As a songwriter, Perry pulled Schon towards more traditional song structure. Baker brought the band focus; not only did he get the band to lose the fusion excess, he polished the already superior musicianship in Journey to a level of majestic the group had never before reached. His penchant for layered multi-tracked harmonies benefited Journey's sound on songs like "Feeling That Way." Perry's soaring tenor blended nicely with Greg Rollie's voice, and both "Lights" and "Wheel In The Sky" barely missed the top 40. There was also the Kelly/Mouse artwork that popped off the cover, again unlike anything the band had done before (and becoming a theme the band would come back to throughout the decades).

The sucess of "Infinity" also finds the band in a sudden state of flux. Drummer Ansley Dunbar would bow out after this, and Rollie would tire of being Perry's second banana after that. For the moment, however, Journey had found the magic formula for their climb to the top with "Infinity" and the soon to come "Evolution."