by Don » Fri Sep 09, 2011 12:52 pm
As a touring act Journey is doing great, provided they are paired up with great opener. As far as forging ahead creatively with a new singer, it's a mixed bag. If Journey goes back to the re-record route, history will not be kind to them in the long run. From a outside view, it would appear like the band had their asses handed to them with the dismal sales of Eclipse and retreated back to a safe zone by regurgitating their past works again. It would put further emphasis on Disc 2 of Revelation being the real reason that album sold so well. While that is debatable, that perspective would gain a lot of credibilty if the band went down that road again in order to try and rebound from an original material release that flopped. With the band in its twilight, it would be a shitty way to go out and a very disappointing end to the Pineda era.
I would rather they record another rock album like Eclipse and just do a better job at promotion, not taking anything for granted like what happened this time. As much as I hate to say it, they also need to include one killer old school ballad that can get the album some exposure.
After selling over 30,000 copies of Revelation in the Philippines, Eclipse's lack of a great sing along ballad seems to have totally neutered Arnel's sophomore effort in his homeland and that's a shame.
