Journey
Frontiers

When they started in the mid-seventies, the Californian band Journey was just another rock group, musically well-prepared but lacking a compositional focus and true personality. By the release of their eighth album (we're in 1983), they were sailing at full speed and had become one of the most followed and best-selling global acts. What happened and how did they get there? Through four progressive changes, one for each album starting from the fourth.

The first turning point, at the time of their fourth album "Infinity," was the hiring of a lead singer with a powerful vocal output named Steve Perry: an invaluable enrichment but also an undeniable and problematic influence. The second came with the next work "Evolution," with the hiring of a new and better drummer in the person of maestro Steve Smith. The third added value is the shift in production from the English Roy Thomas Baker to the American Kevin Elson, who is better at elevating Perry's voice and choruses to melodic heights, and this happened in the sixth work "Departure." The last, well-chosen input was the arrival of keyboardist, and especially notable composer, Jonathan Cain to replace the departing founding member Gregg Rolie, for the seventh album "Escape."

Each of these career changes resulted in millions more albums sold, as well as quick climbs in international recognition and fame. "Frontiers," however, features the same lineup as the previous album and no further novelties: by now, the Journey musical approach and sound are fully formed and established, and they aim to persist on the successful path they've taken.

With a frontman as spectacularly styled and vocally gifted as they have, albeit prone to excesses and kitsch, Journey have transformed into the Queens of America; not in the sense of a stylistic similarity between their hard pop rock and that of Brian May and his bandmates, but rather in the way that, just like the four Englishmen, this quintet is now perceived in a polarized way: you either deeply love their sweetened offering or view it as kitsch and can't stand them.

Apart from the overwhelming vocal personality of both Mercury and Perry, another shared aspect between the two groups is the notable inconsistency in quality among the songs on the same album: ranging from iconic melodies to decent fillers, down to relatively poor efforts. That suits me fine: I prefer to find three thrilling songs on an album and the rest average, rather than encountering a compact, decent, pleasant collection of well-made songs, all without flaws but all mediocre.

"Frontiers" doesn't escape this rule: for starters, the invaluable second track "Send Her My Love" is forever recorded in the annals of American melodic rock where everything is perfect, from Smith's bass drum and snare edge intro signaling an elegant rhythmic march, to Neal Schon's atmospheric and grand, melodically rich guitar riff; from Perry's luxuriant and romantic lament to Schon's reverberating solo singing in the central solo, a true song within a song.

"Faithfully," the fifth track of the album and exclusively the brainchild of keyboardist Cain, akin to things like "Questo piccolo grande amore" or "Tanta voglia di lei" for us, fulfills a similar role. At the time, Cain was continuously and languidly on the phone with his blonde wife during the band's long world tours. "I'm forever yours... faithfully" sings Perry's most aphrodisiac voice, promising eternal love to the distant woman. Time passes and changes things, even though the songs remain, and this is one of those cases... in reality, Cain would divorce the subject of such a devoted piano ballad a few years later, successfully remarrying another. Good the second time, for him too.

Journey has always loved opening with "Separate Ways," nearly always present in concerts but which I personally find very tedious: Smith's invented rhythm is unusual and original but cumbersome, the chorus is predictable, Perry's embellishments excessive. I'm also not convinced by "Back Talk" even more edgy, and "Chain Reaction," due to its trite and kitschy air.

However, the title track of the album is very elegant, thanks to a classy guitar riff exquisitely accompanied in up-tempo by the creative Smith. The same cannot be said for "Edge Of The Blade": the guitar loop is dramatic and idiosyncratic, introducing and characterizing a typical hard rock number in which Perry does not seem to be having much fun.

The third ballad of the album, "Troubled Child," is of great value, in which the guitarist and keyboardist show they are made for each other: Schon's melodic guitar hovers over the slender colleague's synthesizer arpeggios like whipped cream on a cup of ice cream, for a waltz-tempo round in which even Perry cannot resist unveiling his most fertile emission. Smith also contributes, organizing a creative shift of accents on his drums for the refrain that makes it seem like the song's tempo changes, though it does not.

The rest falls within the typical Journey average, good but not transcendent. The album earns its four stars in the end thanks to its three ballads: this has often been the case in the works of this group.