MR

15 years, wow i am (getting) old
the album is Journeys' worst, let Schon Cain and Valory sing? No
the re-record 2 songs on the next album - what a jab at Augeri


the Deen songs are the highlights, not much else

Some great songs and some terrible.

Good tunes:

Faith in the Heartland
Place in your Heart
Every Generation
Out of Harms Way
Beyond the Clouds
Never Too Late

Take those 6 and add Red13’s 4 tunes and you have quite a nice album.

Even as is - I like it more than Raised on Radio or Trial by Fire.

Eric wrote:Some great songs and some terrible.

Good tunes:

Faith in the Heartland
Place in your Heart
Every Generation
Out of Harms Way
Beyond the Clouds
Never Too Late

Take those 6 and add Red13’s 4 tunes and you have quite a nice album.

Even as is - I like it more than Raised on Radio or Trial by Fire.

I pretty much agree with you on all of that.

I also enjoy some of the Generations songs that you didn't name.

Most of that album sounded 15 years old when it came out.

2021 is the 40th anniversary of Escape. Journey need to be touring next summer.

The only problem I had with everyone singing was the lack of unity or flow. It was very disjointed. Ross ain't great, but it worked on that song. Neal sang in the early days (up to People & Places, i think) so it was an OK nod. Jon is somewhat bland but serviceable. Its obvious this was a decision based on Steve's struggles. But its ok.

I just wish Jon would've work with Augeri a little more on songwriting. I like Augeri's offerings but they needed a little tightening up.

That tour woulda been a thing of beauty if Steve wasn't hurting. (Mine was still pretty damn good) Shame the band rode him so hard, but that's what they needed to do to rebuild. And it worked, just at what cost....

Easily their weakest album but it still has some good music.

JourneyHard wrote:2021 is the 40th anniversary of Escape. Journey need to be touring next summer.

2021 will be 20 years for Arrival too I believe.

I like the album, minus "Every Generation". The grammar on "Beyond The Clouds" was horrific, but still a great 9/11 tribute from New Yorker Augeri. Ross has a good voice, it's just very different. He did a very different, but great version of "Walks Like A Lady" live back in '05. Like someone else said, Deen's songs were golden. Better than TBF or ROR? Not even close.

Neal was distracted by Soul Sirkus. As a result, the CD is just unfocused. Some real gems on there tho. The sequencing is part of the problem. Ross's track should've been a bonus track, if anything. Unused Arrival songs should have been added. The Augeri solo songs needed a polish or be cut completely.

The biggest problem with Generation for me was that the production quality SUCKED bad. Especially in Augeri's vocals, so much hiss and such. It was REALLY bad.

To me, this is an example why a "band" should avoid everybody recording their bits separate and then having them put together. It just sucks. The production suffers, the songs suffer from lack of band input, and you end up with a disjointed and mediocre album.

Also, this was the album where Neal had the idea of having a hit album like Prince did by giving it away at concert. So, many of the copies that exist were freebies. I have to wonder if that caused some of these issues as well...it's a free album so no sense in making it perfect.

Monker wrote:The biggest problem with Generation for me was that the production quality SUCKED bad. Especially in Augeri's vocals, so much hiss and such. It was REALLY bad.

To me, this is an example why a "band" should avoid everybody recording their bits separate and then having them put together. It just sucks. The production suffers, the songs suffer from lack of band input, and you end up with a disjointed and mediocre album.

According to Cain, Neal was MIA as a songwriting partner because of Soul Sirkus. However, as far as I know, the album was still recorded together as a band. I think Augeri sounds better and more like himself on Gens than he did on Arrival.

Monker wrote:Also, this was the album where Neal had the idea of having a hit album like Prince did by giving it away at concert. So, many of the copies that exist were freebies. I have to wonder if that caused some of these issues as well...it's a free album so no sense in making it perfect.

Prior to Generations, free concert CDs (like Madonna and Prince) were charting on Billboard. They were looking forward to being back on the charts with this CD. So I don't think they intentionally made a half-assed album. Later, they publicly said they were unhappy with the drum sound. And of course, Shirley re-did 2 of the Gens songs for Revelation.

I recall Neal telling me they really had to work hard to get any usable quality vocal out of Steve at that point.

Andrew wrote:I recall Neal telling me they really had to work hard to get any usable quality vocal out of Steve at that point.

I wouldn't doubt it. The band denied having multiple vocalists on that album to help Steve. I never really believed them.

That said, I think Steve sings his ass off on the album. He also sounds a lot more like relaxed confident Tall Stories Steve than he does on Arrival. I still prefer his version of Place in Your Heart and Faith in the Heartland over Arnel's.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:I still prefer his version of Place in Your Heart and Faith in the Heartland over Arnel's.

So do I.

Journey/Survivor wrote:

The_Noble_Cause wrote:I still prefer his version of Place in Your Heart and Faith in the Heartland over Arnel's.

So do I.

Ditto... me too!