DREAM, AFTER DREAM (OST)

Dream After Dream is an oddity in the Journey catalog in that it is a soundtrack for a Japanese movie comprised of both songs and score. It is also a fairly progressive album, which is surprising, since it follows the more mainstream rock found on the previous albums Infinity and Evolution.

1. Destiny (8:55) Destiny is one of the few vocal tracks on the album. It is also the album's longest track, clocking in at 8:55. The songs starts slow with a dreamy intro. Neal Schon plays a fluid guitar part over Greg Rolie's synthesizer. There are also some nice bits of orchestration. Perry begins a very simple vocal almost 2 minutes in with some nicely layered harmonies in the verses. Unfortunately, his vocals are crispy (maybe on purpose?), as if there was too much gain on the mic. The vocal section gives way to another instrumetnal section in which the band kicks into a more standard rock feel, reminiscent of the rock songs from their Departure album. This section ends with a burst of synthesizer, and the band mellows again. Schon plays a tasteful solo over a reprise of the intro.

2. Snow Theme (3:22) This track begins with some beautiful orchestration (with violin as the featured instrument) and some restrained piano playing by Rolie. This is just a really pretty piece of sountrack music. Reminds me of the Braveheart soundtrack a little (minus the pipes of course).

3. Sand Castles (4:42) Sand Castles is another vocal track. There is some nice fusion drumming by Steve Smith on this track. Sounds like Rolie is playing electric piano here. The orchestration from Snow Theme is carried over. Perry's vocals are a little more adventurous on this track. At the 2:09 mark we get a rarity for Journey, a saxophone solo. Once again, the band pays homage to Floyd (there are a couple of songs on their first three albums that have Floyd undertones). I can't help but feel that with lyric tweaks, this song could fit nicely on a James Bond soundtrack.

4. A Few Coins (:41) Incidental music.

5. Moon Theme 4:36) Moon Theme is a nice instrumental track. Neal Schon plays a nice, melodic guitar line under an orchestrated intro. At 1:07, drums kick into the track, and Schon's guitar jumps to the forefront. He plays a cool lead, and then we're back into the more mellow intro melody, then we repeat the drums and lead again.

6. When the Love Has Gone (4:02) This is a cool instrumental that features Schon. When The Love Has Gone would fit on Schon's solo albums Late Night or Beyond The Thunder. It's a very straight-forward slow burn which lets Schon play some soulful leads.

7. Festival Dance (:59) 8. The Rape (2:13) Both tracks 7 and 8 are more incidental music.

9. Little Girl (5:46) If Journey had continued to write and record songs like Little Girl in the 80's, critics would have been far more forgiving. From Perry's vocals to the orchestration to Neal Schon's guitar parts, this song has so much power. There is monster solo from Neal Schon, probably in the top three solos by Schon on a Journey album.

The song starts off with Schon playing a counter melody on acoustic guitar to the dominate symphonic melody. The orchestra fades, and his melody becomes the dominate and underlies Perry's vocal. The song seques into a more mainstream pop song at this point. Perry delivers a very powerful vocal here, akin to his more impressive moments on Infinity. There is some nice layered harmonies in the chorus (very Roy Thomas Baker, the producer the band used on their previous couple of albums). What makes the song truly special to me is Schon's solo which begins at 3:00. The solo lasts almost 1:20, and Perry comes back in to repeat the chorus. Schon runs through a range of emotion during the solo, and it is very epic, dare I say majestic. There is an outro harmonica solo by Gregg Rolie that almost spoils the song, but it is, thankfully short.

I really like listening to this album. It is very bittersweet, because it shows what Journey could have been in the 80's, if Rolie would have stayed and if they would have had the stones to flex their artistic muscles a bit. Instead, it serves as the last gasp of a potentially great progressive band. It definitely deserves a place beside the first three Journey albums in any progressive music listener's collection and maybe even ahead of Look Into The Future.