Traces

[brywool]

Strange Medicine was also introspective, dark, and moody. However, those songs were interspersed with some upbeat rockers as well. "Sun Shines Gray" is a good palette cleanser coming after a ballad. Album needed a few more of those. Regarding the Street Talk sound....Angel Eyes is as motown-y as it gets.

Angel Eyes sounds like it could've been an older track, maybe recorded years ago. Just sounds different from the rest of the album.

[shaneslatts]

I've listened to this Album several times now.
I don't know how else to say this but I think a lot of "us" were expecting a Journey sound or even a Street Talk sound.
I played the first release, "No Eracin" for a friend at work on my crappy old Galaxy S3, and soon as Perry started singing, her eyes lit up and she said "wow...that VOICE"
This IS a moody Album, and I think much of it deals not only with Loss but with survivorship. I had stage 4 throat cancer 6 years ago, and by Gods grace, I'm still here...
My friend and older "brother" ( a brother to me) was diagnosed the same week and passed three years ago.
A Bronze Star with Valor, Two Purple hearts from the Nam War.
After surviving, I went through a deep sense of guilt that I survived, and he didn't.
As a survivor, much of this Album reflects that to me....
( We're still here, October in New York, and others).
What I'm saying is I Expected a moody album, and alot of it brought me to tears.
It was also very therapeutic for me as well.
It kind of reinforced the idea in me that it's OK to hurt, feel loss and feel even a little guilty that I'm here, and my friend, my brother ISN'T.
I would think Steve understands all that as well, as he's also a survivor.
All of that, those feelings are reflected in this Album.
I truly love it.

Strange Medicine was also introspective, dark, and moody. However, those songs were interspersed with some upbeat rockers as well. "Sun Shines Gray" is a good palette cleanser coming after a ballad. Album needed a few more of those. Regarding the Street Talk sound....Angel Eyes is as motown-y as it gets.

I'm hoping that if he decides to release another Album, it's lighter and yes, with more up beat material.
I know this will never happen, but if Schon chills out, he could contribute that more upbeat rock sound.
Kind of sad really, because they bounced off each other well.
I can dream, lol.

[JourneyHard]

I stand corrected. I got the feeling from the message board that people didn't like Traces. Maybe they just want more rockers. But on Steve Perry's other solo albums, he didn't really have rockers in the way Journey did. On Street Talk, there was Strung Out. That is not a really big rocker like Escape or Edge of the Blade. On For The Love Of Strange Medicine, there were many songs with electric guitar solos, but I wouldn't call any of them a big rocker like Chain Reaction or Dead or Alive. In Steve Perry solo album world, No Erasin' is a rocker. I bet Perry considers half the album to be rockers. But they aren't rockers in the sense of Journey, but only in Steve Perry solo album sense of the word rocker.

Also, even if Perry was going to rejoin Journey, he would NOT say it now. He is all about Traces right now. In two years, there could be something. Probably not. But who knows? I didn't think Perry would ever come back in any way at all. So this is all a bonus.

[slucero]

Sounds to me like he's already made up his mind. He's just not telling us about it yet.

That's why in my original message I said..

"BUT what if Perry has already put the kibosh on touring and they entered into the relationship knowing this. It would explain why Perry is so vague on touring."

IMHO him saying he's gonna tour is just lip service... which, to be honest, looking at his historical communications, isn't new for him...

[Shadowsong]

I've fallen & I can't get up!!!!

So I'm here to share in the PARTY!!!!

[youkeepmewaiting]

Ok so now that the pressure of really wanting to love it has passed ... I love it

[The_Noble_Cause]

On Street Talk, there was Strung Out.

There's alot more variety and up tempo songs on Street Talk. "I Believe", "You Should Be Happy", "It's Only Love" etc.For Traces, we have "Sun Shines Gray" and "Easy to Love." That's it. I've lived with the album for a few weeks now. Overall? While I respect the tracks individually, the album is sequenced quite horribly. It's a downer. It's a buzzkill.
Let's be honest, Traces makes Perry Como look like Metallica.

[Shadowsong]

Nothing wrong with the classics like Tony Bennett & Perry Como...oooh translated meaning Perry How or Perry Trick

Rod Stewart did some lounge acts...Steve Perry has the chops for it! I've heard it & imho that's what he should have done.

Steve looks great but he is 69 & I really don't want to see him doing AC DC.

I'm guessing no label would touch a classic Steve Perry album as it diverges to far from his home base reputation of Journey.

Still I think Steve Perry can stand/sing on his own. He is more rooted in the motown era R&B than the likes of Perry Como & I'm sure this is how he wanted it to sound. These are the songs that came from his heart & said what he wanted to say.

Don't think he was sitting down writing thinking of the Noble Cause & what he would like!

[JourneyHard]

On Street Talk, there was Strung Out.

There's alot more variety and up tempo songs on Street Talk. "I Believe", "You Should Be Happy", "It's Only Love" etc.For Traces, we have "Sun Shines Gray" and "Easy to Love." That's it. I've lived with the album for a few weeks now. Overall? While I respect the tracks individually, the album is sequenced quite horribly. It's a downer. It's a buzzkill.
Let's be honest, Traces makes Perry Como look like Metallica.

That's true. Like you said before, Angel Eyes is upbeat song. I don't think any current radio format would play Angel Eyes, but it could be a hit. It is upbeat and you can just repeat the line Steve sings. It is like you are doing a duet with Steve Perry!

[Shadowsong]

I guess I have to hear Steve Perry's Angel Eyes...but for now all that comes to mind is one of my fav Steel Hearts...
"I'll Never Let You Go"!

Now those are some serious highs!!!





This one turns me inside out...I'm sorry but this is where Angel Eyes need to gaze...sighs

Takes my breath away...

A voice that soars above the heavens & gives me angels wings!!!!

https://youtu.be/NRSHmyK9o-k

Timeless love for there was no time for the woes of time
& all the circumstance to tear it down.
Love held high above in a special place.
Life focuses on what really matters as time is of the essence.

There's no time to get tired of each other's flaws or fall out of love.
The fire burns bright til the end...
Perfect love in love with all of the imperfections...
No one else can ever hold a candle to light that place

For the ones left behind...

Cried a river til exhausted I fell into the water & the tears swept over me washing me out to sea.

[JourneyHard]

I am bored. So, here is a possible Steve Perry solo concert set list:
1. Separate Ways
2. Any Way You Want It
3. One More
4. Lights
5. When I Think Of You
6. Stone In Love
7. You Better Wait
8. No Erasin'
9. We're Still Here
10. No More Cryin'
11. Sun Shines Gray
12. Angel Eyes
13. Wheel In The Sky
14. Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin
15. Who's Cryin' Now
16. Faithfully
17. Can't Tame The Lion!
18. Oh Sherrie
19. Don't Stop Believin'

By playing deep cuts from Trial By Fire and his solo stuff, it keeps the set fresh.

[Archetype]

Sitting in a restaurant right now. No More Cryin’ is on the radio.

[scarab]

after 8 weeks No Erasin' hasn't budged from the low 20's. At 24 now. peaked at 20.

[Shadowsong]

Its been a long time comin...A change is gonna come!

I don't think this should be measured on the charts but in the hearts//!!!!

We know!!!

[jrny84]

after 8 weeks No Erasin' hasn't budged from the low 20's. At 24 now. peaked at 20.

9 weeks now and when up to #23


Traces Chart Positions 10/20/18
http://www.mediatraffic.de/albums.htm

Billboard Albums 200 Chart
#6
Scottish Albums Chart
#17
Oricon Japanese Albums Chart
#29
Swiss Albums Chart
#30
Canadian Albums Chart
#35
UK Album Charts
#40
German Album Charts
#45
Austrian Album Charts
#76
Belgian Album Charts
#116

[slucero]

More Perry on not touring...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... es-737177/

10. If he does tour, expect to hear a lot of Journey songs.

“I don’t know if a tour will happen,” he says. “Right now it’s premature to even guess.

But there would be no way in the world I’d go out there and not sing Journey music too. It would be solo and Journey together. But those songs are vocally challenging. They’re challenging for Arnel and everyone else. They’re not easy. They were challenging for me when I wrote the damn melodies, but back then I was young and in my olympic singer mode. [Barbra] Streisand lowers the keys when she does her old songs. There’s nothing wrong with lowering a key We’re not spring chickens.”

1. The album is OUT.

2. He is actively promoting it.


That he "doesn’t know if a tour will happen", and thinks that “Right now it’s premature to even guess." are clear indicators that one isn't even PLANNED. In the normal course of album releases, the tour these days is pretty much the only way an artist/label makes any money.

Perry obviously doesn't need the money.. so touring for him is more an option than a necessity.

I'm betting no tour.

[The_Noble_Cause]

I'm betting no tour.

Hard to second guess him when so many of us also wrote off the possibility of new music. That said, I agree. The fact that he's not even performing while promoting the cd is a clue.

[Eric]

This is the sort of BS that drives me nuts:

his new comeback album that he spent the last five years recording in such secrecy that he made everyone on his team sign strict NDAs.

[jrny84]

More Perry on not touring...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... es-737177/

10. If he does tour, expect to hear a lot of Journey songs.

“I don’t know if a tour will happen,” he says. “Right now it’s premature to even guess.

But there would be no way in the world I’d go out there and not sing Journey music too. It would be solo and Journey together. But those songs are vocally challenging. They’re challenging for Arnel and everyone else. They’re not easy. They were challenging for me when I wrote the damn melodies, but back then I was young and in my olympic singer mode. [Barbra] Streisand lowers the keys when she does her old songs. There’s nothing wrong with lowering a key We’re not spring chickens.”

1. The album is OUT.

2. He is actively promoting it.


That he "doesn’t know if a tour will happen", and thinks that “Right now it’s premature to even guess." are clear indicators that one isn't even PLANNED. In the normal course of album releases, the tour these days is pretty much the only way an artist/label makes any money.

Perry obviously doesn't need the money.. so touring for him is more an option than a necessity.

I'm betting no tour.

I'm kind of getting that vibe myself. I want to be positive, as I honestly never thought he would do new music again. However, its really odd that he's not performing any new music on talk shows, late night shows, or even his appearance on GMA. Everything has been strictly interviews. I don't recall the last time I remember an artist promoting an album who doesn't perform one of the new singles on TV.

[The_Noble_Cause]

More Perry on not touring...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... es-737177/

What a shit article. Makes it sound like the band only started touring again to capitalize on DSB-mania. They had been touring since 1998!

"[Perry] refused to emerge from hiding in any way, allowing his former bandmates to reap the hefty rewards by playing about 70 shows a year with a soundalike they plucked from YouTube."

[shaneslatts]

More Perry on not touring...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... es-737177/

10. If he does tour, expect to hear a lot of Journey songs.

“I don’t know if a tour will happen,” he says. “Right now it’s premature to even guess.

But there would be no way in the world I’d go out there and not sing Journey music too. It would be solo and Journey together. But those songs are vocally challenging. They’re challenging for Arnel and everyone else. They’re not easy. They were challenging for me when I wrote the damn melodies, but back then I was young and in my olympic singer mode. [Barbra] Streisand lowers the keys when she does her old songs. There’s nothing wrong with lowering a key We’re not spring chickens.”

The thing with this guy is you just never know.
Most of us here gave up on any hope of ever seeing him sing live, ever, including me.
Then...
One night in 2014 we're sitting here and someone puts up a fair quality cell phone video of Perry singing in of all places Minneapolis.
Then a few more encores over a couple of weeks, then nothing.
Then he's saying he's "working on an album".
Most of us here said "yeah right".
Then one night "I know it's been a long time comin, since I saw your face" scrolls by on a Twitter Post.
I think he will do a "tour", when he's ready.

I think it will be what a 70 year old Perry can handle, and I don't think it will be far off.
I bet he's got places lined up in the event he decides to tour, like say in a few months.
If he decides not to, then he has plans to release himself from any obligation to tour.
I HOPE he does, I THINK he will, but only HE knows.




1. The album is OUT.

2. He is actively promoting it.


That he "doesn’t know if a tour will happen", and thinks that “Right now it’s premature to even guess." are clear indicators that one isn't even PLANNED. In the normal course of album releases, the tour these days is pretty much the only way an artist/label makes any money.

Perry obviously doesn't need the money.. so touring for him is more an option than a necessity.

I'm betting no tour.

I'm kind of getting that vibe myself. I want to be positive, as I honestly never thought he would do new music again. However, its really odd that he's not performing any new music on talk shows, late night shows, or even his appearance on GMA. Everything has been strictly interviews. I don't recall the last time I remember an artist promoting an album who doesn't perform one of the new singles on TV.

[scarab]

One night in 2014 we're sitting here and someone puts up a fair quality cell phone video of Perry singing in of all places Minneapolis.


It was Saint Paul

But his first interviews for Traces were in MPLS.

Wonder if he has a connection to the Twin Cities?

[Eric]

After listening to all 15 tracks on the album multiple times:

- 'We're Still Here" is the best song.
- I have grown to like "No Erasin".
- "Sun Shines Grey" is a quality mid-temp rocker.
- "October in NY" is just cool and unique. Sonic-ally beautiful.

No more cryin' is fine and Angel eyes has that fun mo-towny feel but neither are songs I'll continue to listen to much.

These 4 songs are blah for me: We fly, Easy to Love, You belong to me, I need you

In the Rain and Most are a il better than blah.

The last 3 tracks I barely could get through once: Call on Me, Blue Jays Fly, Could we be something again

[scarab]

1. "No Erasin'" Was okay at first but got past the Caaar line 7.5/10
2. "We're Still Here" Love it 9.5/10 and an awesome guitar solo
3. "Most of All" Indifferent, its okay, nothing special 6/10
4. "No More Cryin'" A midtempo that should have had happier lyrics but still real good. 8/10
5. "In the Rain" Okay we needed a rocker here. this is why i dont listen to the songs in sequence. A very sad sad song but brilliant as well 9/10
6. "Sun Shines Gray" (featuring John 5) 10/10. Love everything about this song
7. "You Belong to Me" I thought okay until I watched a fan made video (the day after the CD was released so wondering if it really fan made?) Now I love it 9/10
8. "Easy to Love" Happy lyrics with a 70s light rock vibe. Okay I guess 5/10
9. "I Need You" (The Beatles cover) A constant skip. cant even rate
10. "We Fly" Okay we already had a very good song that was beyond sad, this one is sadder and not as good 6/10


11. October in NY A VERY different Perry song, Perry Como it should be, but still good due to the orchestration 7/10
12. "Angel Eyes" Loved it from first listen, probably my favorite Perry song that made it on an album. 10/10
13. "Call on Me" A just fun song which the CD needed. Listened to enough and will skip. 5/10
14. "Could We Be Somethin' Again" Okay at best and will skip 5/10
15. "Blue Jays Fly" Not really a song but damn Perry, 3 songs that wanna make me seek therapy? Really though I can see him looking up at the sky after Kellie died and seeing blue jays fly...knowing that life goes on.

[The_Noble_Cause]

- "October in NY" is just cool and unique. Sonic-ally beautiful.

Agreed. This is another one that should have been on the regular release.

[The_Noble_Cause]

9. "I Need You" (The Beatles cover) A constant skip. cant even rate

Same. This is one I hit 'skip' on constantly. This cd is sequenced horribly.

[jrny84]

1. "No Erasin'" Was okay at first but got past the Caaar line 7.5/10
2. "We're Still Here" Love it 9.5/10 and an awesome guitar solo
3. "Most of All" Indifferent, its okay, nothing special 6/10
4. "No More Cryin'" A midtempo that should have had happier lyrics but still real good. 8/10
5. "In the Rain" Okay we needed a rocker here. this is why i dont listen to the songs in sequence. A very sad sad song but brilliant as well 9/10
6. "Sun Shines Gray" (featuring John 5) 10/10. Love everything about this song
7. "You Belong to Me" I thought okay until I watched a fan made video (the day after the CD was released so wondering if it really fan made?) Now I love it 9/10
8. "Easy to Love" Happy lyrics with a 70s light rock vibe. Okay I guess 5/10
9. "I Need You" (The Beatles cover) A constant skip. cant even rate
10. "We Fly" Okay we already had a very good song that was beyond sad, this one is sadder and not as good 6/10


11. October in NY A VERY different Perry song, Perry Como it should be, but still good due to the orchestration 7/10
12. "Angel Eyes" Loved it from first listen, probably my favorite Perry song that made it on an album. 10/10
13. "Call on Me" A just fun song which the CD needed. Listened to enough and will skip. 5/10
14. "Could We Be Somethin' Again" Okay at best and will skip 5/10
15. "Blue Jays Fly" Not really a song but damn Perry, 3 songs that wanna make me seek therapy? Really though I can see him looking up at the sky after Kellie died and seeing blue jays fly...knowing that life goes on.

My Ratings:
1. No Erasin 6.5/10 Great comeback lyrics and like it more I listen to it.
2. We're Still Here 10/10 My favorite and love almost everything about it. Had to get use to the "Brother to Brother" and "Sister to Sister", but that's definitely a Perryism lol.
3. Most of All- 9/10 My favorite ballad and just great lyrics and meaning.
4. No More Cryin- 5/10 Not really into this song. Don't care for the bluesy sound to it.
5. In the Rain- 7.5/10 Another pretty good ballad
6. Sun Shines Gray- 8/10 One of my favorites. Love the tempo.
7. You Belong to Me- 7/10 Initially didn't care for it, but I agree with you, definitely like this one after watching the fan video.
8. Easy to Love- 7/10 Great positive, uplifting song. Nice change from some of the others.
9. I Need You- 4/10 Not a fan of this one lol.
10. We Fly- 8.5/10 I honestly really like this one. Its got a haunting, heavenly feel about it and it builds more and more as you listen.

Bonus
11. October in New York- 7.5/10 Such a different song that Perry has ever done, but I really like it. Very Sinatra/Bing Crosby type sound and Perry does a great job.
12. Angel Eyes- 6/10 Not bad. Very Motown sounding.
13. Call on Me- Skip it
14. Could we be somethin' again- 7/10 I like this one. Kind of a hidden gem.
15. Blue Jays Fly- 6/10 Another haunting one.

[JourneyHard]

I enjoy all 15 tracks on Traces. Steve Perry put his heart out there and sang all these songs with great emotion.

Question: Who is laughing on Call on Me? Is that Kellie Nash?

[shaneslatts]

One night in 2014 we're sitting here and someone puts up a fair quality cell phone video of Perry singing in of all places Minneapolis.


It was Saint Paul

But his first interviews for Traces were in MPLS.

Wonder if he has a connection to the Twin Cities?

Know what? On my way home from work it hit me that Perry performed in St.Paul, not Minneapolis.
I was like someone will get me on this.
I've been made fun of which maybe means I'm accepted?
Love this Place.

[MotherCitay]

Question: Who is laughing on Call on Me? Is that Kellie Nash?

Yes it is!