New Single - You Got the Best of Me

[ebake02]

Someone finally questioned Neal about the mix on Facebook and wondered why you can barely hear Arnel. He gave a snippy reply that he disagreed and they need to listen on better system.

[Monker]

Wow, pretty sad....this only has 40k views since release. Not good at all.

And, then Def Leppard's "Kick", released two weeks earlier, has over 1,000,000. Wow.

Yep, I bitched about this a month or so ago.

Leppard has a noticeably smaller online following than Journey on every social media platform... and yet they simply outclass Journey by leagues with respect to engagement.

Leppard has taken shit seriously for years that Journey's been late to the game to or still avoid altogether. In 2006, Leppard invested massively in spectacle that increased excitement whereas Journey was bare bones. It took Journey until 2012 to really get their shit together on that front. Everyone's bitched for 10 years about the sound mix and only last month did Neal take it seriously enough to change it.

Journey's social media presence is a fucking joke in comparison. It's just Neal logging into Journey's accounts and retweeting 85 pictures of himself and occasionally a picture of AP, Deen, or Jon; videos of him noodling around on a guitar; or worst of all shit about him and "lAdY m."

Whereas Leppard will post animated videos, fan videos and artwork, competitions and drawings, behind the scenes footage with all the members, interviews, snippets, teasers, calls to arms, etc.

I love that Journey gets out there and grinds away on tour, but their engagement outside of a live show is an absolute trainwreck. Amateur hour.

I wish Andrew would find a politically-correct way to get that through to Neal.

So, DL releases a new single (Fire It Up) and it had more views in less than one day than Journey had in a week for "Let It Rain". I think it is more than just the above. It seems to me that DL's dedicated fan base...those that follow the band closely and know about such things...is much larger than Journey's. It seems the dedicated fans have stopped caring as much about Journey. It seems that what Journey has is a lot of "fans" who like Journey but do not seek them out for anything. Journey is lucky they have such a popular back catalog that they don't NEED a new album...because, it seems to me, not many are biting their nails waiting for it. So, they tour and live off the back catalog, and release new albums that sell < 50,000 copies, and singles that very few people hear or care much about.

[ChicagoSTYX]

Speaking of Def Leppard……. Compare this new DL song to the mix on You Got the Best of Me. https://youtu.be/X9UwhI2uPFE

[Gideon]

So, DL releases a new single (Fire It Up) and it had more views in less than one day than Journey had in a week for "Let It Rain". I think it is more than just the above. It seems to me that DL's dedicated fan base...those that follow the band closely and know about such things...is much larger than Journey's. It seems the dedicated fans have stopped caring as much about Journey. It seems that what Journey has is a lot of "fans" who like Journey but do not seek them out for anything. Journey is lucky they have such a popular back catalog that they don't NEED a new album...because, it seems to me, not many are biting their nails waiting for it. So, they tour and live off the back catalog, and release new albums that sell < 50,000 copies, and singles that very few people hear or care much about.

I think the reasons I provided above are mostly the reason why this is the case. Leppard has spent years meticulously cultivating engagement and hype for everything they do whereas Journey... doesn't.

Speaking of Def Leppard……. Compare this new DL song to the mix on You Got the Best of Me. https://youtu.be/X9UwhI2uPFE

This is the best Leppard song I've heard in years. Good shit!

[Archetype]

Someone finally questioned Neal about the mix on Facebook and wondered why you can barely hear Arnel. He gave a snippy reply that he disagreed and they need to listen on better system.

Someone please ask him what kind of system is required for this song to sound good, because I’ve heard it now on several different ones, all of which sound fantastic when the song being played is of good audio quality. YGTBOM sounds absolutely horrible on all of them. Bands local to me have released songs with better audio.

[Gideon]

Someone finally questioned Neal about the mix on Facebook and wondered why you can barely hear Arnel. He gave a snippy reply that he disagreed and they need to listen on better system.

Someone please ask him what kind of system is required for this song to sound good, because I’ve heard it now on several different ones, all of which sound fantastic when the song being played is of good audio quality. YGTBOM sounds absolutely horrible on all of them. Bands local to me have released songs with better audio.

Love Neal's playing, love his energy, love his thirst for new music... but this mf takes every opportunity to demonstrate how fragile and narcissistic he is. People have bitched about the live mix for years and it took him a decade to confront it; people in comment sections everywhere are complaining about YGTBOM's mix and he's sticking his fingers in his ears and shaking his head.

Digging the shit out of that new tune by Leppard, Take What You Want.

[Eric]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR ... &fs=e&s=cl

[JourneyHard]

The chorus seems backwards. "You got it, You want it, You got the best of me." They are giving it to you BEFORE you want it. That is backwards.

It should be "You want it, You got it, You got the best of me."

[Monker]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR35ma59iFyFpPXFGP5KLU63GzQPt33A3C4W-8xF8a8kXMKQnF9KZQohX6g&v=UzMstMO4dw0&feature=youtu.be&fs=e&s=cl

What is this band doing? This video is like three weeks too late. Maybe if it was a huge hit and had a million views it would have earned spending money on a real video. But, this song landed with a giant >thud< and went nowhere.

[jrnyman28]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR35ma59iFyFpPXFGP5KLU63GzQPt33A3C4W-8xF8a8kXMKQnF9KZQohX6g&v=UzMstMO4dw0&feature=youtu.be&fs=e&s=cl

A fun video, shows the band having a good time on stage which is a good ad for touring. Creates a trend of featuring people who may not be a part of the band.

[Eric]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR35ma59iFyFpPXFGP5KLU63GzQPt33A3C4W-8xF8a8kXMKQnF9KZQohX6g&v=UzMstMO4dw0&feature=youtu.be&fs=e&s=cl

A fun video, shows the band having a good time on stage which is a good ad for touring. Creates a trend of featuring people who may not be a part of the band.

I dig it too - for the same reason.

The song has really grown on me and was much better live when I saw them. I don’t dismiss the weaknesses of it thst have been mentioned… but it doesn’t deter me from liking it a lot.

[JourneyHard]

I wince every time I hear the chorus of "You got it, You want it, You got the best of me." It is like nails on the chalkboard.
It should be "You want it, You got it, You got the best of me." It could have been such a great song.

[Gideon]

I wince every time I hear the chorus of "You got it, You want it, You got the best of me." It is like nails on the chalkboard.
It should be "You want it, You got it, You got the best of me." It could have been such a great song.

I’d prefer: “You want it, I’ll give it. You got the best of me.”
Don’t repeat “got” twice. Three different verbs.

[Monker]

I wince every time I hear the chorus of "You got it, You want it, You got the best of me." It is like nails on the chalkboard.
It should be "You want it, You got it, You got the best of me." It could have been such a great song.

I’d prefer: “You want it, I’ll give it. You got the best of me.”
Don’t repeat “got” twice. Three different verbs.

Or, it could be:
Any way you want it
That's they way I'll give it.

[JourneyHard]

I wince every time I hear the chorus of "You got it, You want it, You got the best of me." It is like nails on the chalkboard.
It should be "You want it, You got it, You got the best of me." It could have been such a great song.

I’d prefer: “You want it, I’ll give it. You got the best of me.”
Don’t repeat “got” twice. Three different verbs.

Yes. That part needs to be changed. I think Journey misses Steve Perry NOT even for his singing, but for Perry's ability to make small changes that make songs better. I know I am knit-picking, but there were minor things wrong with Eclipse and now the same for Freedom. Perry could have fixed all of this. Back in 1981, Jon probably wrote, "Born and raised in North Detroit." And then Perry said, "No. No. No. South Detroit."

[JourneyHard]

I wince every time I hear the chorus of "You got it, You want it, You got the best of me." It is like nails on the chalkboard.
It should be "You want it, You got it, You got the best of me." It could have been such a great song.

I’d prefer: “You want it, I’ll give it. You got the best of me.”
Don’t repeat “got” twice. Three different verbs.

Yes. Or "You want it. You need it. You got the best of me."

Or "Any Way. You Want It. You got the best of me."

Anything would be better than what they got!

[JourneyHard]

Journey needs to make a new ballad called "I Love You With All Your Heart." Since they have stopped making sense with their songs, this would be perfect.

[Aaron]

100% correct! Tell me they're fixing it before a final release!

Love the song.

The mix is horrendous. Chorus almost unlistenable.

[Aaron]

Jeezus, 5 sounds engineers to deliver this? WTF? I'm thinking one Roy Thomas Baker could knock it out of the ballpark!

Any idea who the musicians actually performing on this record are? I'd thought this album was largely recorded/produced when the lineup was going to be Randy on bass and Narada on drums. Neal was promising a "funk" vibe when he was in the studio. But this doesn't really deliver on that. The drums have all the hallmarks of Deen.

From the YT video:

Provided to YouTube by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

You Got The Best Of Me · Journey

You Got The Best Of Me

℗ 2022 Freedom JN, LLC under exclusive license to BMG Rights Management (US) LLC

Released on: 2022-04-26

Keyboards, Guitars, Producer, Background Vocals, Arranger: Neal Schon
Drums, Producer, Arranger: Narada Michael Walden
Sound Engineer: Bob Clearmountain
Sound Engineer: Adam Ayan
Sound Engineer: Jim Reitzel
Sound Engineer: Keith Gretlein
Sound Engineer, Keyboards, Background Vocals: Jonathan Cain
Lead Vocals: Arnel Pineda
Bass: Randy Jackson
Sound Engineer: David Kalmusky
Composer: Neal Schon
Composer: Jonathan Cain
Composer: Narada Michael Walden

Auto-generated by YouTube.


Interesting that BMG is the publisher. Are they the label, too?

Also, Freedom JN, LLC is the new corporate entity that must have the Journey license. I did a quick Google and it looks like they sued Frontiers over some weirdness about members being Italian? Don't get it at all.

I also agree that it doesn't sound like Narada and Randy changed the sound much. It sounds like a song from Revelation to me.

[Aaron]

Check this out. Richard Goodall from Terre Haute, IN. School custodian or Steve Perry? What do you think?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1540370467835592706

What's a cooler story?

Interesting that they brought Narada and Randy in, and the end result is zero groove. The bass is just booming (in a bad a way) and the drumming has less inferior swing/groove than what both Steve and Deen would have brought to the table.

And then there are the vocals. Hard to decipher and still with an accent.

Arrival was the last real Journey album and the tour with JSS their last tour, in anything but name.

For a band so big on real emotion back in their hey day, they have never felt more shallow and watered down than with this song.

They are just a karaoke version of the old band. And contrary to what Cain says, it doesn't matter that they still have "2 out of 3" in the band, when those two (Cain and Schon) have such poor judgment. And when they're missing their magic ingredient: Perry.

[danielb]

It would have helped if it didn't sound as if the song was recorded in an echo chamber. But the arrangement is all over the place too. It's all a blur. Journey used to be so distinct, verses, choruses, everything. This is just a blur with lyrics that make no sense. Damn it.