Journey Album: “The Essential Journey”

This is not a bad album, but it is not all that great either. If I were a casual fan or someone new to the group then this would be the album to buy (over their single disc GREATEST HITS or TIME CUBED box set).

For a few bucks more you get all the songs from GREATEST HITS plus some "Essential" tracks like: CHAIN REACTION, AFTER THE FALL, STILL THEY RIDE, STONE IN LOVE, THE PARTY'S OVER, JUST THE SAME WAY & ANYTIME.

However, there are some "Essential" MIA's like: SUZANNE, WHY CAN'T THIS NIGHT GO ON FOREVEER, DIXIE HIGHWAY, WALKS LIKE A LADY, TOO LATE & FEELING THAT WAY.

As always not everyone will be happy with the song selection so accept what you're getting here. ESSENTIAL JOURNEY is a much better compilation than GREATEST HITS for not much more $$$, but it is no substitute for owning all the Steve Perry Journey discs as I do. This is still the best disc available for casual fans with a lot of their better songs.

You would think that they could get it right with two discs to work with this time, but "The Essential Journey" is only partially deserving of its title. True, all the big hits are included (the 15 that appeared on the original "Greatest Hits" are also here), and justice is restored to previously shunned favorites like "Stone In Love", "The Party's Over (Hopelessly In Love)", "After The Fall", "Still They Ride", "Just The Same Way" and "Escape". But there are still a bunch of greats that were left off in favor of lame "what-the-hell-is-this-one-here-for" type songs. I mean, since when are "The Eyes of A Woman", "Mother, Father", and "Something To Hide" considered essential, while high-airplay singles like "Walks Like A Lady", "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever", "Suzanne" (a Top 20 Hit!) and "City of Angels" are not? Not only that, but even though this collection rightfully includes the classic "Anytime", it does not include the song "Feeling That Way" which almost always preceeds it when heard on the radio. For Journey fans, this would be like Queen putting "We Are The Champions" on a best-of without "We Will Rock You" right before it! Same goes for "Stay Awhile" (which admittedly sounds a lot like "Lights"), which was always played right after "Good Morning Girl" on the radio. "Good Morning Girl" is here, "Stay Awhile" is not, and GMG seems lost without its companion. Don't get me wrong, I do like the songs "Something To Hide" and "The Eyes of A Woman" a lot, but I think they should've been shelved in favor of better-known fare. At any rate, this is definitely the best Journey compilation out there (better than the spotty "Time3"), but I sometimes wonder what the people in charge of song selection are thinking when they put these things together.

As ballad pop goes, Journey is there. These are the songs which were played at proms throughout the 1980s. Filled with romance, emotional passion and Steve Perry's unrelenting voice, Journey's "The Essential Journey" are a mix of hard, mild and melodic pop rock.

Occasionally, the band would turn out mediocre music, like "Girl Can't Help It," but most is still worth listening to. "Be Good to Yourself" sounds like a bad movie soundtrack song, and is not worthy of this otherwise amazing CD.

There are two disks, with more music than the average listener is familiar with, and only hardcore fans with know. A few hits are missing, leaving a real best-of CD still out there.

Journey was a pop band: Simple lyrics without a heavy message. Distinguishing them was their willingness to step out of the known musical formulas. Club music was coming into its own in the 1980s, with DJs sampling and mixing. Their music doesn't sample well, and they risked being a radio-only band. As their hit list grew from "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'" into a rich repertoire, their concerts became packed into stadiums. Those are the songs here.

It is 1980s music in every sense of the term, but better than just as music from the period, just like James Taylor is better than just being a musician from the 1970s. I fully recommend, "The Essential Journey" by Journey.

Anthony Trendl

editor, HungarianBookstore.com

If you are a casual Journey fan, this is the set you should get. If you have all of the Journey cataloge on older CD's like I do,you still need this set. All the hits are here and a nice selection of other popular tracks are included. (The set only goes as far as the last of the Steve Perry days in 1996 and does not include later stuff recorded after Steve left/was fired/whatever story you like.)

This CD may be some of finest examples of remastering I have heard yet. The remastering was done by Bob Ludwig who is (and has been for as long as I can remember) the best Mastering engineer in the business. If you don't understand what remastering is all about, don't feel guilty, most of us don't. Here's a little of what I have learned. When most of Journey's recordings were made it was all done on analog reel to reel tape and mixed for use on vinyl records. Vinyl records had some severe technical limitations. A pressed vinyl record had a defined set of limits: There was a set limit of time available (per side), the amount of volume on the record had to be closely watched because louder records required deeper/wider grooves giving you less available time and to control it all a huge dose of compression was often needed. Mastering engineers were often forced to roll off some low end information (bass and drums)so the grooves of the vinyl record could be cut smaller thus allowing more time on the disc. For this reason producers usually placed songs with the most bottom end within the first tracks on a disc because the outter grooves were wider and could be cut "hotter" and with less compromise to the sound. Suffice to say these were only a few of the restrictions that were part of pressing vinyl records. When digital CD's came along these restrictions were pretty much eliminated, but for twenty years rather than remaster older albums, CD versions were usually produced from the same tapes that were used to manufacture vinyl records (with all the limitations of vinyl still in place). These CD's were not even made from original master tapes but were made from copies of the original master tape. Just listen to a CD of The Beatles "Rubber Soul" on a cd from the 80's and then from the remastered CD version released within the past few years and you have an excellent example of the difference between a digital transfer from the original master tape and a CD made from a copy of the original master tape.

The remastering of these Journey tracks is state-of-the-art mastering done by a legendary mastering engineer. The original mixes sound incredible. Just compare Bob Clearmountains's production on "I'll Be Alright Without You" on this CD with any other former release on CD. On these new tracks the kick drum pops right out of the speakers like you are sitting in the studio and the clarity of Steve Perry's voice is crystal clear. It's like someone took a blanket off of your speakers.

Great songs by an incredible group of musicians finally remastered to perfection.

For those looking for the best greatest hits compilation from Journey during the Steve Perry years, this is it. Disc One contains the songs that were released on Greatest Hits but

adds When You Love A Woman and After The Fall but pushes Be Good To Yourself to the second disc. All of the biggest radio mainstay hits are here including Wheel In The Sky, Faithfully, Any Way You Want It, Who's Crying Now, Open Arms, and Lovin'

Touchin' Squeezin'.

Naming any compilation set 'The Essential' means that the set must go beyond the greatest hits and give a deeper listen to the music of the band. Disc Two is supposed to provide that depth. This disc actually does a pretty good job of doing so, but it is not perfect. Songs like Patiently (the first song that Neal Schon and Steve Perry wrote together), Still They Ride, Just The Same Way, Message Of Love, and The Party's Over(Hopelessly In Love) are all there. From there, selections are really just subjective choices by whomever put together this compilation.

Some of these choices are suspect when compared to what had been left off. For example, Anytime was rightfully included, but Feeling That Way, which is still played prior to Anytime on rock radio, was omitted. Good Morning Girl was included, but Stay

I like the selections of Mother, Father and The Eyes Of A Woman, but the latter meant the probable demise of top twenty hit Suzanne from this collection, and that was a likely mistake. Chain Reaction, Escape, Line Of Fire, and Baby I'm A Leavin' You are all good songs, but in my opinion, they are not as essential as Majestic, Too Late, Where Were You, and Why Can't This Night Go On Forever.

What is upsetting is that the discs come in at about 67 and 63 minutes respectively, so there was room to add some of these additional songs without having to delete the ones already there. I guess this could be called The Almost Essential Journey, as it is obviously incomplete, but is still the best one shot Journey compilation available. For those music buyers looking to hear what the fuss was all about, this is a much better pick up than the previously released one disc Greatest Hits. I will rate it a full 5 stars, because the music that is here is great, but it could have been even better had the song selection been slightly expanded.