MR

I've finally listened to all of Generations and Arrival intact. Dean made me promise I'd post my opinions of both cds, so here goes. To be as fair as possible I tried to listen to them as if this was a new band that has no history for me. I haven't made, and won't make, any comparisons to the Journey that know.

I'm just going to list the songs and give my opinion of each one. The songs are what matter most to me, I don't worry too much about stuff like overall production and track order. Like I told Dean, these are just my initial reactions to the songs since I've only listened to them a couple times. I know songs take on new personalities after you hear them a few times.

Generations:

Faith in the Heartland - This is very good and one that I think I'll keep
liking more as I hear it

The Place in Your Heart - My favorite song on the cd so far

A Better Life - Good but a little trite, or maybe, like I told the Jetster,
generic better describes the feeling I get from it

Every Generation - I'm still not sure about this one, the song is ok, but I'm
not crazy about the vocals

Butterfly - Very pretty

Believe - There's only one song on here that I like less than this

Knowing That You Love Me - This is even sounds too sappy for me

Out Of Harm's Way - Love the message of this song, not so much the
overall sound

In Self-Defence - UhUh, hard to listen to

Better Together - Good bluesy/rock sound

Gone Crazy - This is just the worst

Beyond the Clouds - This just sort of drags on&on&on&on then leaves me
flat

Never Too Late - Good song I think it'll grow on me

The Pride of the Family - Like this a lot, good story and good sound,
classic Cain

SSB - Sorry guys, I'm an anthem purist. Neal shows that he can play the guitar on this but I'd rather hear him use another song to do it.



Arrival:

Higher Place - Good song

All the Way - Better song

Signs of Life - Very good song but I wish the Who's Cryin' Now riff wasn't
in there

All the Things - UhUh

Loved By You - Absolutely beautiful, best love song out of both cds. The
words get a little sappy but the melody sells them.

Livin' To Do - Great guitar intro, like the bluesey sound

World Gone Wild - Nah

I Got A Reason - Not this one either

With Your Love - Very nice, it gives Loved By You some competition

Lifetime of Dreams - This one hits me the same way A Better Life does,
a good song, but sort of generic

Kiss me Softly - Best vocal performance on the either cd, great latin
guitar sound

Live and Breathe - Not bad, but it just misses the mark somehow

We Will Meet Again - Would be better as an instrumental

To Be Alive Again - Best rock out of both cds, Jon's piano sounds fabulous.

Very favorable reviews, ohsherrie. Seems like you were being very honest. Glad you like some of the tunes.

Even I don't have "Pride of the Family" yet. Somebody hook a brother up!

NealIsGod wrote:Very favorable reviews, ohsherrie. Seems like you were being very honest. Glad you like some of the tunes.

Even I don't have "Pride of the Family" yet. Somebody hook a brother up!

If my burner was working I be happy to, sorry.

There is the Jap bonus from Arrival you may like too...."I'm not that Way'.

By the way...what did you think of Remember Me? Red13?

Good review Sherrie.
I swear I'm the only one on these boards who LOVES "Believe."
Place In Your Heart is my favorite as well...this would be an instant radio hit if it got ANY national airtime...

I like both of those tunes, too. My least favorite song on Gens is probably Better Together.

Yet another one who says their favorite is TPIYH. Sly, spin that cd Dean dropped on your ranch. Please.

I too, love Believe. It's in my top 3 or 4 on the album, depending on how I'm feeling about Every Generation at the time.

OhSherrie,

Thank you for this review. It does appear honest and open-minded. It does show that you lean a little more to balladry than rock, but there is nothing wrong with that. (And although you stayed away from comparisons, I would imagine your love of Perry and his strength with ballads may have influenced that to a degree).

This is really all that "we" have ever asked of the Perry fans...a good, solid, honest review of the material. I think you approached it the perfect way: as it's own thing.. Maybe this solidifies a belief that Journey should have changed their name, but that is irrelevant. But that doesn't mean the material cannot be listened to that way.

Nice job.

And, since you do not pay attention (as much) to production or track-listing, you should really listen to Walking Away From The Edge and I Can Breathe from Red13. I have a feeling The Time and State Of Grace would be a little harder than you prefer. But Remember Me and I'm Not That Way are certainly up your alley.

I've only heard clips of Red 13, and to be honest, I did think they sounded a bit harsh. I'd be willing to give them another listen. I've only heard a little of Remember Me, but I don't remember where. I know it was done for Armageddon, did they play any of it in that? I've seen that a couple times so I may have heard it then.

You know I've always been about the vocals and the melody.

I just bought "Generations" and listen to it for the first time and I can tell you I liked what I heard so far...."Faith In The Heartland" is a really good opening song...."The Place In Your Heart" souned really good too...It's kind of early to tell about the rest of the CD...I'll give it a few more spins and I'll let you know....

DeeJaySTYX wrote:I just bought "Generations" and listen to it for the first time and I can tell you I liked what I heard so far...."Faith In The Heartland" is a really good opening song...."The Place In Your Heart" souned really good too...It's kind of early to tell about the rest of the CD...I'll give it a few more spins and I'll let you know....

I recently got a copy of the version given away at the shows.

Place in Your Heart, A Better Life, and Beyond the Clouds were the ones I really liked at first listen. Going to give it another few listens to decide how I like the others...though Gone Crazy...didn't do anything for me.

ohsherrie wrote:I've only heard clips of Red 13, and to be honest, I did think they sounded a bit harsh. I'd be willing to give them another listen. I've only heard a little of Remember Me, but I don't remember where. I know it was done for Armageddon, did they play any of it in that? I've seen that a couple times so I may have heard it then.

You know I've always been about the vocals and the melody.

Remember Me is played in Armageddon for about 5 seconds in the cab as the meteorites start falling. It was SUPPOSED to be played over the end credits. But it is one of the BEST songs Journey has done and if it had been handled properly I really don't think these new vs old debates would still be going on.

OpeningAct wrote:Good review Sherrie.
I swear I'm the only one on these boards who LOVES "Believe."
Place In Your Heart is my favorite as well...this would be an instant radio hit if it got ANY national airtime...

Not the only one Joe...I LOVE Believe as well....scary huh?

RubyTequila wrote:

OpeningAct wrote:Good review Sherrie.
I swear I'm the only one on these boards who LOVES "Believe."
Place In Your Heart is my favorite as well...this would be an instant radio hit if it got ANY national airtime...

Not the only one Joe...I LOVE Believe as well....scary huh?

Wow...I knew there had to be SOMETHING we had in common RT...
Along with Place in Your Heart, I only needed to hear it once before it reeled me in... I think it's a GREAT tune!!!

Thanks to the Jetster I've now heard Remember Me and Walking Away From the Edge. I've only gotten to listen to them each once, and only on my computer speakers, but these are my initial thoughts on them.

Remember Me is a really great song. I don't know if I can agree with Dave that it would have ended the debate though because it's really not ALL about the music where Journey/Perry is concerned. Maybe it should be, but when you're dealing with peoples' emotions logic has little or nothing to do with it.

Walking Away From the Edge is good. It's just not AS good as some of the others on the cds.

ohsherrie wrote:Remember Me is a really great song. I don't know if I can agree with Dave that it would have ended the debate though because it's really not ALL about the music where Journey/Perry is concerned.

If "Remember Me" had taken off as anticipated, then that would've cemented Steve A. as Journey's new singer-end of discussion.
Too bad Sony dropped the ball. "Higher Place" could've done it, and although not bloody likely at this point, "Place in Your Heart" has the potential to do it, also.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:

ohsherrie wrote:Remember Me is a really great song. I don't know if I can agree with Dave that it would have ended the debate though because it's really not ALL about the music where Journey/Perry is concerned.

If "Remember Me" had taken off as anticipated, then that would've cemented Steve A. as Journey's new singer-end of discussion.
Too bad Sony dropped the ball. "Higher Place" could've done it, and although not bloody likely at this point, "Place in Your Heart" has the potential to do it, also.

Let's hope so Noble. Can't speak for the rest of the country, but I haven't heard any Generations tunes on the airways on the Boston/Worcester/Rhode Island stations...

I had never heard of the song Remember Me. My wife knows I like hard to find CD's of my favorite groups. One day about 3 or 4 years ago she suprised me with a Journey CD called ' The Journey Continues' She found it at a Borders store in San Antonio.

Anyway, when I heard that song I thought it was vintage Steve Perry/ Journey. It is one of the BEST songs Journey has ever done. I love Journey songs in the mode of: Escape, Raised On Radio, Mother Father, and Seperate Ways. Remember Me fit that style and actually one uped em.

To this day it is still one of my favorite Journey songs. It is a song that they should play EVERYTIME they perform live. When I saw them in 1998 or 1999 with Foreigner they played it. Its the first time I had heard it. I instantly liked it. On The Main Event tour it was nixed. This song should be the staple of the'new' Journey.

yogi wrote:I had never heard of the song Remember Me. ...... This song should be the staple of the'new' Journey.

ABSOLUTELY!!

yogi wrote:I had never heard of the song Remember Me. ...... This song should be the staple of the'new' Journey.

I think it should by TPIYH.

ohsherrie wrote:Remember Me is a really great song. I don't know if I can agree with Dave that it would have ended the debate

Well, I did say "If handled correctly". And what I mean is, like TNC said, if the song had been pushed as a single with the original placement in the movie and a video, it could have become a hit. With a hit, especially from their first song without Perry, many fans would have realized the talent within this band...not just from their previous lead sing. It would have been a much easier transition. PLUS, if Remember Me had been a hit, there would have been more push from Sony for Higher Place, which easily should have had some success. The ball would have been rolling and Journey would have gained a MUCH EASIER acceptance for Steve. Sony's decsion to virtually remove Remember Me from Armageddon really hurt Journey's chances at commercial success. Then they followed up with their disasterous "promotion" of Arrival and Sony sealed Journey's fate. IMO.

ohsherrie wrote:because it's really not ALL about the music where Journey/Perry is concerned. Maybe it should be, but when you're dealing with peoples' emotions logic has little or nothing to do with it.

I certainly understand, but for the mainstream fans the transistion would have been much smoother.

ohsherrie wrote:Walking Away From the Edge is good. It's just not AS good as some of the others on the cds.

I love music for this very reason, we all hear things differently!

NealIsGod wrote:

yogi wrote:I had never heard of the song Remember Me. ...... This song should be the staple of the'new' Journey.

I think it should by TPIYH.

By now Journey should have several songs from Augeri-era that are staples at the concerts. That is one of the things Journey did WRONG on tour. They kept reverting back to ONLY Perry-era tunes. Look at Higher Place! The one song Journey has continued to play. The crowd LOVES the song...even people who don't really recognize it "get it". TPIYH has received the same reaction and I think Remember Me would have as well. Journey should have been playing certain songs from Augeri-era releases at EVERY concert. This year I think they finally got it right, I can only wait until next tour to see if they continue on the right path or if they fall back to the "tried and true" safe BS.

jrnyman28 wrote: The ball would have been rolling and Journey would have gained a MUCH EASIER acceptance for Steve. Sony's decsion to virtually remove Remember Me from Armageddon really hurt Journey's chances at commercial success. Then they followed up with their disasterous "promotion" of Arrival and Sony sealed Journey's fate. IMO.

The way Sony handled these matters strikes me almost as if they intended to sabotage Journey in hopes that Perry could be lured back, although Kalodner and company should have known there was no chance at that point and should have learned their lesson from the events post TBF.

jrnyman28 wrote:By now Journey should have several songs from Augeri-era that are staples at the concerts. That is one of the things Journey did WRONG on tour. They kept reverting back to ONLY Perry-era tunes. Look at Higher Place! The one song Journey has continued to play. The crowd LOVES the song...even people who don't really recognize it "get it". TPIYH has received the same reaction and I think Remember Me would have as well. Journey should have been playing certain songs from Augeri-era releases at EVERY concert. This year I think they finally got it right, I can only wait until next tour to see if they continue on the right path or if they fall back to the "tried and true" safe BS.

I think you're onto something there Jman. When you, the band, start a new era with a new lineup - especially when one of the new members is the frontman - then the band needs to mix in a good amount of new material at concerts to solidify that new frontman as being a part of the band, and not a guy who is considered a "stand in." By sticking mostly with the classics, it sort of sends the message that they're playing it safe. However, it's been long enough now for the Augeri era stuff to be considered regular material for concerts. They need to do at least 4 songs, post 1998.

OpeningAct wrote: Wow...I knew there had to be SOMETHING we had in common RT...

Vaginas?

Rock'ndeano wrote:

OpeningAct wrote: Wow...I knew there had to be SOMETHING we had in common RT...

Vaginas?

Greggie wrote:However, it's been long enough now for the Augeri era stuff to be considered regular material for concerts. They need to do at least 4 songs, post 1998.

This last year, at a couple shows, they did 9 post 98 songs....

I would say regularly, about 5 post 98 songs..Higher Place, FITH, TPIYH, EG, and ISD, and sometimes Gone Crazy.

At Irvine, they played all of the above, plus Butterfly, and Out of Harms Way.