danielb wrote: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.
Yep, I agree with this. They would have been better off hiring a "real" producer, even Kevin Shirley, if this is what the album sounds like.
And then there are the vocals. Hard to decipher and still with an accent.
Yep...I agree with this, too. Also, when they do the chorus, the "background" repeated vocal (or whatever) is LOUDER than Arnel's lead vocal. It just doesn't even make sense. Could you imagine "Be Good to Yourself" where that background repeated vocal was louder Steve Perry's lead vocal. Perry controlled ROR, and he would have NEVER accepted that, it fundamentally doesn't make sense.
Arrival was the last real Journey album and the tour with JSS their last tour, in anything but name.
Arrival is the best post-Perry Journey album, by far, IMO. Eclipse is too much Neal, Revelation is too much 80's pop throwback, Generations is, well, as badly produced as this single and just a bad concept of everybody singing, Red 13 is an EP and not a full album...they should have done a true follow up to Arrival - missed opportunity.
The JSS "tour" (partial tour really), had Journey OPENING for Def Leppard...and DL's show was so far above Journey's that it was clear Journey was the inferior band at that point.
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.
That is something I have been thinking about, too. It seems Journey is all show now, which is something I always hated about 80's bands back in the day. Most bands, especially hair bands, were all about looks and style and performing. By "performing" I mean, DLR's jumping and kicking, drum kits being hoisted in the air with the drummer playing, singers climbing scaffolding, basic KISS crap. All that matters at least as much, if not more, than the music. Journey never fell into that. But, nowadays, it SEEMS Arnel's antics and running around on stage are as much of a highlight as his voice or Neal's guitar. During the New Years Eve thing they seemed to want to focus as much on the lady playing air guitar on her pool noodle as the band. The band, and many fans even, may like all this stuff, but it turns me off when it comes to Journey doing it. You don't see ANY of this during the MTV Escape concert. It seems many fans nowadays are nostalgic for the 80's, but they either did not live it and are pretending, or they forgot that Journey is NOT Motley Crue or Bon Jovi.
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.
I won't call them karaoke, but they had 4/5 of the Escape lineup and did not really capitalize on it to its potential. I also don't think Perry was some magical ingredient...Infinity, Evolution, and Departure are no where close to Escape and Frontiers. If Perry was some magical person, Infinity would have be 10x platinum.
Also, IMO, they may have released this single because of the Stranger Things promo with Separate Ways. It was a good idea, and maybe a good song to use...but they blew it when it comes to the production. It was smart to release a single right now, but not one this badly produced.
