by separate_wayz » Wed Jun 29, 2011 4:43 am
Hey guys, been a long while since I posted on here. Just wanted to put in my 2-cents about Eclipse.
Let me give some context to my opinion. Had very high hopes when I heard that it was going to be a "harder" album. I assumed that it meant more songs like Higher Place, All The Things, Live and Breathe, The Place in Your Heart, Out of Harms Way, and Wildest Dream, and fewer songs like All The Way, Lifetime of Dreams, and When You Love a Woman. I happen to like both the harder stuff (even liked Peephole by Soul Sirkus, a lot), but I also like the power ballads too.
I also happen to find something to like about Journey at all stages of their career. In my car, I have in the CD-changer three CDs with Journey. These are CDs that I burned on my own. The first has 12 Journey tunes from 1973-1980. The second has 12 Journey tunes from 1981-1997. The third has 12 Journey tunes from 1998-2008. My point is: I find a lot to like from every era of Journey.
All that being said, I'm having a tough time finding a lot to like on Eclipse. When I first heard the mp3 samples, I was concerned. But I went out and bought the CD on the first day it was offered. I've listened to it about five times. There are bits and pieces scattered here-and-there that seem to hold promise. But bottom line, the album just doesn't grab me, at all. If I heard it on the radio and didn't know it was Journey, I can't imagine that I wouldn't immediately reach for the scan button. I'm not in any way eager to give a critical (or just lackluster) review.
Where to begin. For me, it's the song structure, the lyrics, the overbearing guitar (that sounds anachronistic, to be honest), and a number of other things. The bottom line is: they just don't seem like good songs to me. By analogy, listening to it reminded me of how I felt when I watched Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. After eagerly waiting years for this movie, I was left feeling unmoved and disinterested. In fact, I was checking my watch 20 minutes into the movie. Although the marquee said “Star Wars”, it had none of the energy, the familiarity, and the excitement of the original releases. It felt like Star Wars in name only.
My analogy may be a relevant one for the Journey Eclipse album. It’s been pointed out that George Lucas’s wife played a substantial role in advising him during the original Star Wars movies, making suggestions about edits, the story line, etc. When Lucas and his wife divorced after the original three Star Wars movies were made, there was no one with standing and credibility with George Lucas to speak bluntly to him about his filmmaking and make suggestions that carried the weight that his ex-wife did. The second three Star Wars films do not disprove this notion.
I think you can by extension you can see the point that I’m making about the Eclipse album. If Neal was hell-bent on making this album, I don’t think there was anyone with enough standing to tell him “no”. If Neal and Jon think that they can make in-roads into Europe with his album, great – I hope they succeed. If they think they can appeal to a certain rock market in this country with this album, great – I hope it works. If they play these songs live, and they sound better live than recorded, great -- I'll revisit them then. But for right now, the album, sorry to say, doesn’t work for me.
