5.0 out of 5 stars Journey Delivers Most Consistent and Accessible non-Perry Album with Stellar Freedom

W.W.M. · July 10, 2022

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } In the scheme of things you had to ask yourself....did we really need another post-Perry Journey album. And given the lay of the land in that regard - Arrival having it's good moments but largely uninspired, Generations being something of an experimental mess, Revelation re-centering the band and introducing Arnel but him still trying to find his way as an artist and Eclipse while being possibly among the greatest rock records of this century also being somewhat inaccessible requiring almost attention being paid to the listening experience- the answer to that question was probably no. Experience told you that an inconsistent up and down and perhaps at times if not boring at least pedestrian end product awaited you.So it's a good thing past experience isn't always a reliable predictor of future results because with Freedom what we get is the best post- (and to be honest pre-)-Perry album Journey has ever made.There's a few reasons why I think that is: first and foremost, time. Journey has always toured heavily and the more the years passed the more that seemed to negatively impact their new material. Both the prior Arnel albums were cranked out as I recall and rumor has it that Neal recut (and Arnel resang) much of Eclipse after Kevin Shirley left the project, not that such was a bad thing but it did lead to some choppy inconsistency. With Freedom however the band members had literally nothing better to do during the pandemic but to work on the music and with Neal and Narada living near each other in Marin and the studio handy in San Rafael it was the perfect storm for this project to come to fruition.....so perfect in fact I doubt we'd have ever had another Journey album had the pandemic not happened. Secondly, the involvement of Narada as a drummer and the return of Randy Jackson on bass provides one of the better overall rhythm sections the band has ever had and it makes a huge difference in the overall quality of the songs. Finally.......Arnel has found his voice. Let's be honest - he sounded way too much like he was trying to sound like Perry on Revelation and while Eclipse was a notable improvement (something I called out in my review of that album) I always wondered what a studio album would sound like with his voice in the form we've heard it become the last few years....and now we know it would sound amazing. Yes his range is definitely not what it once was- but guess what? You sing this bands catalog what.....thousands of times over 15 years....and tell me if your range doesn't suffer. But it not all about range- heck Perry's range and voice were undeniably different by Frontiers, certainly by RoR...much less Trial By Fire but TbF era Perry is my favorite version of his voice. Same with Arnel on Freedom where the emotive quality of his voice is the best it's ever been and I finally feel like we're hearing all him for the first time.So where all does that leave us with the actual songs? Well I'll spare everyone a track by track but there's driving rockers, inventive near jam sessions, pop-rock tour de forces and several stellar appearances of the song type Journey invented, the power ballad. In fact the Jonathan Cain solo written Live to Love Again is so much one of the best the band has ever done that between Open Arms having originated with him and Faithfully being all his....I'm beginning to think that while Journey certainly perfected it, Jonathan Cain may be the true father of the power ballad.Overall, there's something for everyone and the band touches on all aspects of it's nearly 50 years of existence. Does that at times sound like they're unapologetically plagerizing their own back catalog when Frontiers era synths hit hard in The Way We Used to Be or Don't Give Up On Us, when Let it Rain sounds like pre-Perry or You Got the Best of Me could be right at home on Evolution? Sure. But that's the whole point. This is Journey for crying out loud- they're 50 years in, they're who they are, this may well be their last album of new material, they're outright using the title originally intended for RoR and darn it this is probably a farewell and thank you to the fans so not only are they entitled to look back - but let's all be honest........isn't that "classic" Journey sound and "the way they used to be" what we've all kind of been wanting anyway?Reality is....some people will never accept anything non-Perry (and some even reject TbF) and that's okay- there's magic there that will always be something you can't recapture. But that's why the Perry era is so magical- because it is that special and unique.But for once can we just judge the music on it's own merits? This is a set of unparalleled musicians led by one of the greatest guitarists of all time and Freedom is, for me anyway, start to finish filled with great music I enjoy. So much so I'd dare to say that- along with Trial by Fire and, oddly enough as it's aged exceptionally well, RoR....Freedom may over time end up being among the Journey albums I reach for the most to listen to all the way through.And at the end of the day......isn't that what it's really about.....the music being something you enjoy and makes the moment you're in better? If so then Freedom will be making many moments in my life better for years to come and so if this is it then to the band I want to personally say thank you for giving this lifelong (almost 40 years now since Who's Crying Now grabbed a little 4 year old boy by the ear) fan one last fantastic musical journey to press play to.Epilogue: I want to address the engineering, production and mix: yeah, I heard the muddy too from the beginning especially with the YouTube mixes and wondered what on Earth was going on. Well I still don't know what's going on....but what I do know is that the closer to the source you get and better equipment you use, the more the muddy goes away. To the point that- at 320 ripped from the CD, played on either of my BMWs stereos through memory cards or through my FiiO player, various amps and Sennheiser/Audio-Technica/Ultimate Ears headgear- it's among the best produced and engineered albums I've heard the last 20 years. To me it sounds like the album has so much quality engineering, layering and soundstage that overly compressed music files and/or lesser quality audio equipment can't handle it all leading to the muddy sound imaging. Even my non-audiophile wife when listening to different sourced versions of especially some of these songs said on some she couldn't even tell what Arnel was singing.....then on one of the setups above said as to the same songs everything was so clear she felt like the band was in the room. In short - like it or not- this is produced like old albums are, i.e. complexley enough you need decent source media at least and possibly decent equipment as well in order to fully and properly hear the music.

5.0 out of 5 stars "Freedom" is terrific from start to finish in spite of an at times muffled mix

K.D. · August 17, 2022

"Freedom" is Journey's first studio album in 11 yeads since their underrated 2011 release "Eclipse". Comprising 15 tracks totalling 73 minutes 12 seconds of new music, the band definitely gives fans more than money's worth in terms of new material. The lineup for "Freedom" consists of Arnel Pineda (lead vocals), Neal Schon (guitars, backing vocals, keyboards), Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals), Randy Jackson (bass, backing vocals) and Narada Michael Walden (drums, backing vocals, keyboards). Additional musicians include Jason Derlatka on backing vocala and Deen Castronovo who provides lead vocals on the track "After Glow". The bulk of the songwriting is by Jonathan, Neil and Narada.I am frankly surprised we got any new music from Journey after the extremely poor reception afforded to their 2011 release "Eclipse" which only sold about 100,000 copies worldwide. After the failure of "Eclipse" (which I liked quite a bit actually), both Neil Schon & Jonathan Cain were quoted saying that they didn't see any point in creating new music if fans were just going to ignore it.Thankfully their creative juices got flowing again several years later which resulted in 2022's excellent "Freedom". There is quite a bit of variety throughout. The entire band sound fantastic and there is not a single clunker in my opinion. The first half of the album contains a few ballads with the second half rocking noticeably harder overall.My only small complaints are that the sound quality of the album sounds muffled at numerous points. I am not sure if it is due to production techniques utilized or the album was mastered to aggressively in terms of compression. I do not think the album is anywhere close to being unlistenable but the muffled sound quality is most noticeable in terms of the lead vocals and the drums & cymbals. I had thought about lowering my rating from 5 stars to 4 due to the at times questionable mix, but the material is so strong throughout that it more than makes up for the somewhat mediocre mix. The track order could have perhaps been a little more balanced too."Freedom" should please most Journey fans. If you can get past the dodgy mix & production, there is a ton of terrific material here that makes it well worth a purchase & listen. Some might feel that the album is too long, but considering that it took this long to get new material from Journey, I say the more the merrier.Highly recommended!

Excellent..

Z. · August 22, 2023

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Bom Cd para fãs do Journey original

M.R. · May 5, 2024

Edição bem produzida, bem gravada e com músicas interessantes pra.quem gosta de uma pegada de rock.

70'sバンド健在

海. · August 2, 2024

スティーブ・ペリーの脱退で終わったかと思ったが、本作も古き良きロック時代を彷彿とさせる。

Buen regreso de Journey

J.M.T. · June 21, 2024

Considero muy buen álbum qué varía un poco su estilo.Gracias 🤗

Typical Journey sound

G.A.B. · August 3, 2022

Unlike some other artists, you get over an hour a music in 15 new tracks. Not something like 40 minutes with 9 tracks.This album has all the hallmarks of a Journey album.If there was something not "different" is the song Don't Give Up On Us which reminds me a lot of Separate Ways.