JOURNEY
The Essential Journey (Columbia)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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This is the band whose songs you all know. You can sing them without any difficulty in your car (with the windows rolled up), but act as though you could never tolerate them when your friends come around.

"Oh, I never even really listened to them back then. It was all about Devo for me in those days!"

I now formally admit that I cherished, and still do, the late seventies/early eighties hits like "Any Way You Want It," "Only The Young," "Open Arms," "Wheel In The Sky," "Who’s Crying Now," "Don't Stop Believin’" and any of the sixteen tracks on this first CD. I'm not too acquainted with any of the music on Disc 2, but "Escape" (from the 1981 album of the same name) was familiar. On The Essential Journey you get the band’s nativity, their commercial pinnacle, a 1990’s resurgence (creatively speaking, but not commercially so), and admirable progressive pop numbers. Steve Perry’s unique oral technique, the guitars of Neal Schon, and Steve Smith’s prodigious rhythm maintenance is what set them apart from the era they came out of, and is why they're on the very short list of artists from their era who remain bearable.

Grade: B+

© 2001 - Jason Thornberry