ARRIVAL

I, like any other Journey fan, I guess, was not prepared to give any chance to an album without the great singer Steve Perry. How could we? Perry , hate him or love him, is a unique singer, had a distinctive voice and was mostly responsible for their mega success after so many years of struggling. Besides, the guy also had a terrific live persona that fired up their shows. So I missed this album and just wanted to forget it all. Even when a friend at the time recommended me their Journey 2001 DVD I did not bother to even take a look at it. And only a few weeks ago I decided to listen to the album since I was really surprised with the high quality of their latter CDs. I figured out that Arrival might also be a good one after all. Needless to say, that proved right.

Ok, this is not a classic. But, boy, is it good! Listening to their back discography one can only be amazed of how those guys never lost their knack for great hooks and melodies, even if radio and press in general have abandoned them a long time ago. Fine, if you don´t like Journey at their heyday, you won´t find anything here to redeemed it. On the other hand, if you do enjoy their classics, than you can do no wrong buying this CD: Steve Algeri may not be as charismatic on stage as Perry, but he does the impossible (or what looked like it): he sounds a lot like Perry without sounding forced or unnatural or a caricature. In fact, he does like a little less passionable version of the former band´s singer, which is fine to me.

While none of the band members lost their great musicianship, the production is sharp and the arrangements are tasteful , nothing could be done without good songs, and Arrival has plenty of them. From the fine opener Higher Place to the final two bonus tracks, we have a selection that are, if not up to their most well known stuff, at least worth more than one quick listen: they all are at least good ones and if you like AOR and ballads like only Journey does, chances are you´re going to like this album very much. I did. They even extend the instrumental parts and at least one song, Livin´to Do, with its bluesy feeling and over 6 minute time reminds me of their early material. In other words, they stick to what they do better and that´s something great, specially nowadays.

Rating: 3,5 stars.