Where does Arrival rank in the Journey canon?

[80s man]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

[Aaron]

I can honestly say I think its better than ROR and TBF. As a matter of fact, I was pissed the first time I heard TBF. I'd put Arrival above those two Perry era recordings.

L8r,

Aaron

[Vladan]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

Arrival and Generations, by far the worst Journey albums to date. Not because they are bad albums, but because Steve Perry didn't record them. Perry is far better and anything he did was better - just ask the masses. I am a perry fan, and a Journey fan with Perry at the helm.

[Red13JoePa]

For full albums it's below ROR, Generations, Escape and Front....putting it ahead of Infinity, evolution departure and tbf.

[larryfromnextdoor]

each time i put on songs from the albums it brings back memories of past years, its all nice,, sometimes Escape is my favorite, sometimes ROR, i loved Trial By Fire and especially Arrival,, the sound is great, the songwriting is great as well as the guitar and over all production.. if it would have been released and marketed correctly it would have sold much more,,, i think that it is possible that the BEST Journey album may not have been written and recorded yet,, the possiblities with JSS are limitless... he honors perrys journey as well as the future..... and can write a heck of a song.. as we will all see on the late 2007 release he will front titled JUSTICE.......

[fred_journeyman]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

ARRIVAL is not bad, but it is certainly not one of Journey's best. Not to start an argument, but I have long thought about what the songs might sound like if Perry's signature vocals had been on them. I think he would have been much more creative with the vocals overall. That in itself would have raised the quality of the CD.

Also, ARRIVAL is not that well mixed. It seems as though Augeri's vocals are more toward the back and should have been way out front. Because Augeri does not have the strongest voice, this is even more important. Arrival, while having some great tunes on it, is simply not as tight as previous Journey albums, in my opinion.

[frostbite]

I still think Arrival was a strong record songwise. It's better than ROR and TBF (marginally) songwise but as has already been stated, anything without Perry is always gonna be second best. Just the way it is with Journey.

[Enigma869]

I've always liked Arrival and still do. It has some great "Classic" Journey tracks on it. As far as Generations and Red13...All I can say is...WTF were they thinking?


John from Boston

[Matthew]

The song-writing on Arrival was okay - a few highlights here and there - but overall it was a soulless and badly produced record - and I can understand why it stiffed. And to be honest...every time I see it in the Journey rack alongside all the classics I can help feeling a bit irritated.

Generations was was an improvement - just - but I wish Journey had packed it in in the 1990s - and then made the comeback we're all hoping for next year.

[SF-Dano]

I can honestly say I think its better than ROR and TBF. As a matter of fact, I was pissed the first time I heard TBF. I'd put Arrival above those two Perry era recordings.

L8r,

Aaron

My opinion also.

[WalrusOct9]

I'd rank both Augeri albums well ahead of ROR and TBF.

I'd even consider putting Arrival ahead of Frontiers...none of Arrival matches Frontiers' high points, but I think Arrival is a more consistent listen overall (especially with side B of Frontiers). You can all lynch me now for saying that...

[somethingtohide]

Despite some good songs...Higher Place, World Gone Wild...it's at the bottom of my list below TBF, ROR, and Generations.
It's just too middle aged guy ballad heavy for me.

[Schon Rules All]

My Opinion is that Arrival is their very very best album. It is truly a gem in my eyes. And Yes, that means I think it is better than the beloved escape and frontiers album. I also am a big fan of Trial By Fire. So yea there is at least one person who considers that to be one of their best albums.

[conversationpc]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

Yes.

1. Frontiers
2. Escape
3. Infinity
4. Departure
5. Arrival
6. Evolution
7. Generations
8. Raised on Radio
9. Journey
10. Trial By Fire
11. Next
12. Look Into the Future
13. Dream, After Dream

[Monker]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

Arrival is better then both TBF and ROR.

As for Generations, who cares? That album was fucked up from the beginning.

[Enigma869]

My Opinion is that Arrival is their very very best album. It is truly a gem in my eyes. And Yes, that means I think it is better than the beloved escape and frontiers album. I also am a big fan of Trial By Fire. So yea there is at least one person who considers that to be one of their best albums.

WHOA...That's REALLY pushing the envelope! But, as you said, it's just your opinion. I certainly think Arrival is very good, but definitely not in the same league with most of Perry's early stuff. But again, if we all felt the same way, there wouldn't be much point to this thread!


John from Boston

[yulog]

I loved Arrival, tough call but if there are any albums that were below this it would be the last 2 with Perry TBF, ROR while both of those cds do have some great songs on them they also had songs that i wouldnt play again, Arrival has just a slew of great classic sounding songs on it, lots of catchy hooks, i could never put this album at the bottom of the list.

[JeremyP]

I'm not sure where I'd rate Arrival in relation to the other Journey albums because I don't have ROR or Dream After Dream, but it's one of my favorites to listen to along with TBF. I do enjoy listening to both of those albums without skipping a single track, which I think is a very big compliment.

[Granny]

each time i put on songs from the albums it brings back memories of past years, its all nice,, sometimes Escape is my favorite, sometimes ROR, i loved Trial By Fire and especially Arrival,, the sound is great, the songwriting is great as well as the guitar and over all production.. if it would have been released and marketed correctly it would have sold much more,,, i think that it is possible that the BEST Journey album may not have been written and recorded yet,, the possiblities with JSS are limitless... he honors perrys journey as well as the future..... and can write a heck of a song.. as we will all see on the late 2007 release he will front titled JUSTICE.......

Lar, like your title, but do i have to wait that long? I like all the albums and only a few songs off of Arrival and Generations.
Anything Steve Perry sang was fantastic....with that voice how could he miss?...G

[EclipticJourney]

I personally would rate it above ROR and even TBF and possibly Evolution.

[JourneyFan08]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

Yes.

1. Frontiers
2. Escape
3. Infinity
4. Departure
5. Arrival
6. Evolution
7. Generations
8. Raised on Radio
9. Journey
10. Trial By Fire
11. Next
12. Look Into the Future
13. Dream, After Dream

Totally in agreement there

[rubicon83]

Arrival wasn't there best effort by a long shot. The production wasn't bad but most of the songs lyrically were definately sub-par with a couple exceptions HP and KMS. Overall my list would be something like this.

1. Escape
2. Infinity
3. Departure
4. Into the Future
5. Frontiers
6. Evolution
7. Trial by fire
8. Journey
9. Generations
10. Red 13
11. Arrival
12. Next
13. ROR

[ohsherrie]

Pretty near the bottom i reckon. Can anyone honestly say it is better than ANY album Perry sang on? I just do not see it at all and as for Generations..................oh dear........

ARRIVAL is not bad, but it is certainly not one of Journey's best. Not to start an argument, but I have long thought about what the songs might sound like if Perry's signature vocals had been on them. I think he would have been much more creative with the vocals overall. That in itself would have raised the quality of the CD.

Yes!! That's exactly what I would say. There are songs on Arrival that I like a lot. My favorite is Loved By You(yeah, I know most of you think it's sappy ). When I listen to it though I keep thinking how incredible it would be to hear Perry sing it.

I don't know much about the mixing and such. I like Arrival, but it doesn't really grab me like the Perry fronted Journey albums do.

[Moose]

Interesting subject. I am always surprised by the little support TBF receives. I thought it was a seriously good CD that showed Journey’s maturation at that time. A little mellow, but a good record nonetheless. I rank Arrival fourth just behind it. I thought Kevin “Caveman” Shirley did a great job on it.


1. Frontiers
2. Escape
3. Trial By Fire
4. Arrival
5. Raised On Radio
6. Departure
7. Infinity
8. Generations
9. Evolution

[Carlitto H@kk]

Call me crazy but I tend to rank Arrival right up there with Escape and Frontiers...

Never liked Augeri LIVE but I thought Arrival was pretty awesome.
Maybe it's because TBF left such a bad taste in my mouth.
Hell, the first 30 seconds of HP gave me more goose-bumps
than the entire TBF and ROR albums combined
Add in TBAA, WWMA, L&B, Livin' 2 Do, I Got A Reason...
Pretty good stuff...

[Chevypv]

For some reason i thought Arrival was better when i bought it than i do now.....I would rank it in the mid to bottom of all the albums....
But,
In disagreement to most, i would rank TBF in the top 5, with Dream After Dream easily in the top half....

[Tom Jrnyfn]

I would rank Arrival as a good to fair album..Infinity will always be my favorite record..

Does anyone else think Journey missed a opportunity between 81- 87 to put out 2 or maybe 3 more records?

[belar]

I think Arrival is very enjoyable, from start to finish. The only song I regularly skip is With Your Love but there are several on there that I truly love: HP, All The Things, Loved By You, Lifetime Of Dreams, To Be Alive Again, Live And Breathe, and especially We Will Meet Again, which I would rank right up there with Perry's best. I'd say I enjoy Arrival more than Departure, Journey, Look Into The Future, Next, Infinity, Evolution, TBF, Dream After Dream, and Generations. I love all of those albums, but if we're ranking them, there you go...

[Red13JoePa]

For some reason i thought Arrival was better when i bought it than i do now.....

Agreed. in 2001 the damn thing did not come out of my cd player. In fact it was in constant and heavy rotation until 8/02 when my Red13 showed up.

In hindsight, I think that based mostly on the strength of Higher Place (still at least a top 10 Jrny song for me if not top 5), World Gone Wild, We Will Meet Again, and Living To Do.
Not that the other songs aren't good, too, just don't find it to be track-for-track as strong, as gutty as Generations anymore.

[AR]

Higher Place
Signs of Life
To Be Alive Again

All A+ material

With Your Love was my wedding song, so I am required to like it by law.

There were always a few I didn't care for on it. It is a pretty long CD. "Nothing Come Close" is the one I can't stand on the album.

Never understood the complaints with the sound quality. Sounds crystal clear production wise to me and slick. Red 13 and Generations sound like poorly recorded bootlegs.