kgdjpubs wrote:If your Walmart deal to re-record the hits was already on the horizon (and I suspect it was), JSS was not the way forward if you consider your ticket to success as recreating nostalgia. The tone was too far off. He was more than capable to sing the hits live and engage the audience for a good show. He was more than capable of writing and recording new material. If you want to re-record the hits and have them sound close vocally to the originals, he was not the right guy.
Exactly.
Also, Neal was saying all through the Augeri years and into JSS that he wanted to move on from the Perry years. He said he wanted to bring Augeri in because it would be a "rockier" sound for Journey - and it was. It was a given that JSS would move even further into that direction. But, as soon as they had Arnel and released the Revelation package, it was all about embracing the "legacy sound", kissing Perry's ass, and generally courting Perry fans. It was complete hypocrisy on the bands part - because that is what the Revelation release required, and what Wal-Mart wanted - nostalgia Journey. Then, as soon as that was over, Neal went right back to his old ways of wanting a rockier sounding Journey, saying that Arnel could sing anything - not just the legacy Journey sound....and we got Eclipse, which was also (wrongly) described by Neal as Escape II.
IMO, JSS was fired because he was not a good fit for the Wal-Mart deal, and they found Arnel - who was a perfect fit to imitate Steve Perry and the 'legacy sound'.
They have been stuck now ever since because Neal wants to move on from the legacy sound, but Eclipse shows that nobody wants to buy it. So, what the hell are they doing now? Some weird compromise that is halfway between the two? If the single was any indication, people don't care about that either.
All these release delays are becoming bullshit. This album has been talking release dates for 2 1/2 years. It doesn't take six months to sequence an album (decide the song order). I doubt this thing is released before this summer, July or so - so they can schedule a tour with Santana, or a bigger name than Billy Idol or even Toto. And, they will invent another bullshit excuse about why it was delayed, again.