MR

Yak kept pestering me....

1- Faith in the Heartland. My favorite song..almost 7 minutes, and it rocks from beginning to end.. Reminds me of Escape a little...

2-The Place in your Heart. The catchiest tune on the cd. IMO definately radio quality. the guitar solos are great..very melodic.

3- A Better Life. The real sleeper on here. Now don't laugh, but I am not sure who sings lead on this, Jon or Deen. I am thinking Deen..What a beautiful melodic, moderate song..The voice is incredible here...This should also be radio friendly....

4-Every Generation. Jon Cain sings lead and was played live in Irvine. Good solid song, moderate tempo.

5-Butterfly(She Flies Alone). I am going soley on memory, but Augeri is the writer for this one. Slow ballad, and you must be in the mood for it..Unlike Faithfully or Open Arms which can be played in between Seperate Ways and Escape, IMO, Butterfly cannot...

6-Believe. Another one that I really like. Fast smooth tempo..catchy guitar licks..

7-Knowing that You loved Me. I am honest so here goes..This could be on Arrival and you wouldn't catch it..sounds like a "I'm Not that way." I personally think the Castranova song should have been left on here(It's never too late), and they should have dropped this one..

8-Out of Harms Way. Oooh.. Cool tune, but real fast tempo, and machine gun like guitar from the master..You will all like this one..

9-In Self Defense(or Self Defence for our Aussie and Canadian freinds).
To me, it rocks, but I remember hearing it on a Schon and Hammer album, so in the back of my mind it sounds dated..Still very much rocks..

10-Better Together. Another rocker, 3 in a row. moderate to uptempo clicks, it moves rather well..

11-Gone Crazy. Have a few in you(or a 12 pack) when you turn this one on. I love the band dearly, and Ross too...that should tell you where I am headed with this one. Sounds very folksy, southern, Arkansas like..Harmonica, and a bumbling, bouncing guitar riff..not my cup of tea..Actually I hate it..

12-Beyond the Clouds. Very well done, and the lyrics are great. slow tempo, and serious chorus lyrics..Neal is beautiful on this one..


So, there you have it.. Once you have put this CD in a good sound system and listen it makes the world of difference.

Tell me "Faith in the Heartland" should not be a concert opener!?? It has a little intro, drum roll, a scream, and a great soaring guitar that moves exceptionally well....

Place in your Heart should be on radio..a crime if it isn't.
Same with "A Better Life."

Are you satisfied Yak...

PS- Yak, check your PM..

Dean

Good review, Deano. Where would you rank it compared with other Journey CDs? Sounds like you like it better than Arrival and TBF.

NealIsGod wrote:Good review, Deano. Where would you rank it compared with other Journey CDs? Sounds like you like it better than Arrival and TBF.

Seriously? Excluding Greatest Hits..

Escape
Frontiers (or vive a versa)
Generations
Infinity
Arrival
Evolution
ROR
TBF
Departure
Red 13


Yes, it's that good

What are you worried about Nealisgod..you will have one in 3 days..


PS- actually, I am thinking this might be as good as Frontiers..both had about 2 "throwouts" and both had 5 really strong good efforts. Generations of course won't produce 5 singles, but they are as good...

Seperate Ways
Send Her My Love
After the Fall
Faithtfully
Chain Reaction

vs.

Faith in the heartland
Place in your Heart
Better Life
Out of Harms way
Believe


I take it back..Generations is now #2 in my book...

Nice write up (mine's over at Back Talk for those interested). I agree with you on "The Place in the Heart" -- one of my two faves. "A Better Life" is the other and that's all Deen on vocals. I couldn't figure it out the first time I heard it, but I knew it wasn't Steve so it was a pretty quick elimination from there.

I'm not sure where I'd rank this on my list of favorites... I need a few more spins and maybe play it in context with others to do that...

The reviews are quickly placing this solidly in the top 3-4 Journey CDs!
Very cool!
Thanks for the review Deeno, I will hopefully be hearing this by the holiday. But my review will probably be more like "Love it, like it, don't like it, hate it". I am not very good at giving reasons why...

Rock'ndeano wrote:Yak kept pestering me....

Place in your Heart should be on radio..a crime if it isn't.
Same with "A Better Life."

Are you satisfied Yak...

PS- Yak, check your PM..

Dean

Quite satisfied, Thanks Dean for the colorful review. Didn't realize I was being such a "pest." Checked the PM. There's nothing there. Was that the surprise?

I agree about The Place in Your Heart. It's a great radio song! The snippets I've heard are the crank it up and then listen to it Journey I love.

I won't go into a song by song review, let me just say this:

I have to be honest, I listened to it a few times and the first thing that went thru my head was...eh?....anyone could have made this album. I was very very unimpressed. It was scary...but I spent the entire day listening to it at my desk, over and over and over again. I have to admit, my first reaction was wrong. Its pretty dam incredible, there are definitely two or three songs I'd take off. Place in Your Heart, Knowing You Love Me(really hate this one) and the last one, Beyond The Clouds, not so bad, but one I would have left out. The rest is really great, a nice mix of the history of this band, even Ross' song, which I actually like quite a bit. At the moment my favorite is 'Better Life', I don't think so much that Augeri couldn't have vocally pulled it off, but Deen's scratchy (TBF) Perry like vocals were more than perfect for the kind of sound that song had to have.

cubby69 wrote:I won't go into a song by song review, let me just say this:

I have to be honest, I listened to it a few times and the first thing that went thru my head was...eh?....anyone could have made this album. I was very very unimpressed. It was scary...but I spent the entire day listening to it at my desk, over and over and over again. I have to admit, my first reaction was wrong. Its pretty dam incredible, there are definitely two or three songs I'd take off. Place in Your Heart, Knowing You Love Me(really hate this one) and the last one, Beyond The Clouds, not so bad, but one I would have left out. The rest is really great, a nice mix of the history of this band, even Ross' song, which I actually like quite a bit. At the moment my favorite is 'Better Life', I don't think so much that Augeri couldn't have vocally pulled it off, but Deen's scratchy (TBF) Perry like vocals were more than perfect for the kind of sound that song had to have.

My feelings: if they dropped "Self Defense" in favor of "Its Never Too Late" we'd be lookin at the first damn near perfect Journey album here, folks. As it currently stands, "Generations" kinda suffers from the same flaw that afflicted "Arrival". The tracks with the most immediate and catchy hooks are placed at the very beggining of the album. I don't hear much filler on this album, but the most catchy tracks should've been more evenly dispersed IMO. It's like they blew their wad straight from the get-go!
Oh well.
Tracks 1,2,3,4,8, & 12 are standouts for me.
The rest are good, too. I even like Ross's.
Neal's song though, as already stated, I could do without.
Oh, and "Beyond the Clouds" makes for the perfect closer.
Neal's strumming intertwined with Augeri's yodeling at the tail end is pure melodic bliss.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:My feelings: if they dropped "Self Defense" in favor of "Its Never Too Late" we'd be lookin at the first damn near perfect Journey album here, folks.

"In Self Defense" is such a rockin' tune, but it somehow sounds out of place on here. Great song on it's own though. And it does balance the CD out more.

jrnyman28 wrote: "In Self Defense" is such a rockin' tune.

I am beggining to regret my former statements on this song. By the 4th listen, it is beggining to really grow on me.

Still apathetic on Augeri's one solo writing endeavor, Butterfly. I don't dislike it, but I can't really recommend it either. Like some parts (neal's guitar is great) and dislike others (whats with the jingling of bells at the end of the song?).

I like the song, Believe but the song overstays its welcome a tad.

Knowing that you Love Me is a ballad for the ages! Fantastic. I also love the dearth of Open Arms-ish power ballads on this cd. Makes Jon's ballad contribution, Knowing that you Love Me, all the more special. As opposed to Arrival where power ballads were a dime a dozen.

Better Together is good, but at this far point in the cd I'd like to have heard something more keyboard driven and melodic ala The Place in Your Heart and perhaps, not so hard edged (if that makes sense).

In retrospect, the conventional sounding rocker "its never too late" should have def. been on here to mix things up.

jrnyman28 wrote:

The_Noble_Cause wrote:My feelings: if they dropped "Self Defense" in favor of "Its Never Too Late" we'd be lookin at the first damn near perfect Journey album here, folks.

"In Self Defense" is such a rockin' tune, but it somehow sounds out of place on here. Great song on it's own though. And it does balance the CD out more.

You know you've said that several times now and I just cannot agree with you at all. I completely believes it fits right in on this cd. The only song after several days of listening that does not fit in at all, is Place In Your Heart. A total throwback off of Arrival and it should have remained on the shelf.

I don't want ANYTHING left off. Our favorite bands anymore record so infrequently that I want another Trial By Fire 15 songs or Arrival 15 songs. Put Never Too Late and Pride Of The Family on there. I want all the damn things.

I'm waiting for the new Stones, too, and hope it's at least 13-14. I don't agree with the less-is-more school of thought. I can't wait to hear Generations and thanks for the review Rockndeano.

Red13JoePa wrote: Put Never Too Late and Pride Of The Family on there. I want all the damn things.

Then the Japanese release is just what the Dr ordered.

And that's a sore spot, too 28. Europe gets 1 version, Japan as usual an even better one and nothing announced for US yet. What the f?

I'm definately going Japanese.

Cancelled my supposed order with Frontiers, very confusing..

Ordered Jap version via mail order. I would have had to buy it to get the extra track anyway.Just got to wait awhile longer now ..

This is not an attack on Generations or Journey at all, but this post applies to this situation. LET'S FIGHT TO END BONUS TRACK DOMINATION! There's no reason that Europe or Japan should get better versions of albums, especially from AMERICAN bands. It shoudn't work the other way around, either, but RARELY do American versions of albums have more songs. Or, in the case of Arrival, you need both the American and Japanese versions. SAY NO TO DIFFERENT VERSIONS! UNIVERSAL ALBUM RELEASES FOR EVERYONE!

By the way, Generations is awesome! I've heard everything including the European bonus track. Now all I need to hear is the Japanese bonus track. See what I'm saying? Ridiculous! But be sure to buy Generations!

I'm with you on that one. It's a good way for record companies to make sure the die hards buy more than one copy.

As for US releases not getting a bonus track, we poor limeys need a bonus of some type. We get the odd bonus track, you guys get to see all my favourite bands, ALL THE TIME.

I would dod a trade there anytime.

mamos wrote:I'm with you on that one. It's a good way for record companies to make sure the die hards buy more than one copy.

As for US releases not getting a bonus track, we poor limeys need a bonus of some type. We get the odd bonus track, you guys get to see all my favourite bands, ALL THE TIME.

I would dod a trade there anytime.

Mamos, wtf is your name? I'll have you know when I sent your CD, it was to "Mamos" as I didn't have your real name. Ask Nealisgod and The Noble Cause what their packages said



Also, if you read Andrews' front page news Ross Valory is on UK radio tomorrow. He is going to say when the band is coming to the UK and the rest of the EU. I would bet both of my testicles they go there next year.

You better not be too quick to bet them, Deano. Then again, if you lost them, maybe you could hit the high notes that Perry can't!

Deano, thanks a million for sending the cd, and yes I've seen that you sent them via NealIsGod and TNC.

And believe me I am even more grateful that you have sent me one now I know I don't apply to the pre-order from frontiers. Don't think I could cope without hearing it for another 6 weeks or so.

And yes I have now seen the front page and am damn near wetting myself at the prospect, but the statement is still true.

You guys get all the good bands touring year after year. And yes I am jealous.

NealIsGod wrote:You better not be too quick to bet them, Deano. Then again, if you lost them, maybe you could hit the high notes that Perry can't!

Bahahahaha! too damn funny NiG!

RubyTequila wrote:

NealIsGod wrote:You better not be too quick to bet them, Deano. Then again, if you lost them, maybe you could hit the high notes that Perry can't!

Bahahahaha! too damn funny NiG!

How about Kenny Loggins?