MATTHEW wrote:The idea of Arrival kicking anything in the balls is just too ridiculous. It has more ballads than either TBF and ROR - and tracks like "All The Way" sound like a limp-wristed, boy band to me. Sure, there were some fairly decent AOR rockers on there - but the murky production did them no favours and let's be honest....these were just pastiches of 80s rock and Journey brought nothing new to the table in 2001.
Here's the way I see it (these are counting the bonus tracks on other releases)...
Raised on Radio = 4 ballads, 3 rock tunes, and 4 pop/rock
Trial By Fire = 8 ballads, 5 rock tunes, and 3 pop/rock
Arrival = 7 ballads, 4 rock tunes, and 5 pop/rock
It's beyond me how anyone can claim that Augeri's thin, vibeless voice on Arrival compares in any way to the majesty of Perry's performance on ROR. Yes, that record is the least 'heavy' of all the Journey albums but it still has more power and spirit than any of Journey's recent work. To my ears, anyway.
I agree that Augeri's voice sounds thin in comparison to Perry's but whose voice wouldn't? There are few that can match Perry even from the ROR era.