Journey: Freedom

Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: July 8, 2022
Production: Narada Michael Walden, Neal Schon & Jonathan Cain
Album length: 73.13 min.
Genre: AOR
Rating: 8.5/10

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Journey are back with their fifteenth studio album, and it’s called “Freedom”. What exactly is freedom anyway? Something you spread on bread, maybe? Whatever. Like it or not, here’s the long-awaited studio ‘penance’ from the old foxes. A few opening takeaways follow, cues for anyone who can’t be bothered with longer expositions. The album is very good. Of the three released with Pineda on vocals it’s the least interesting, or let’s say the most ‘predictable’, but it’s a bona fide Journey record from head to toe. Detailed and polished. It can’t and won’t disappoint. In tune with the proverbial perfectionism that always comes with the Journey name. It gives the ‘deceptive’ impression of slightly more sophisticated production compared to its predecessor “Eclipse” (2011), even though some of Schon’s riffs get surprisingly wound up (more on that below). The Cain-Schon partnership has once again proven essential. As long as this collaboration holds, we can talk about an authentic one-of-a-kind in everything that comes out under the Journey name.

Schon and Cain had quite a few headaches before “Freedom” started taking real shape. First they had to sort out the mess with Valory and Smith, who were both booted from the band over embezzlement. So Schon teamed up with bassist Randy Jackson, whom fans of the band know from the “Raised On Radio” (1986) days, and with the outstanding producer and drummer Narada Michael Walden. Both got actively involved in making the new album. Narada was hands-on with the production too, and co-wrote songs as well. Interestingly enough, though, Jackson and Walden both left Schon and the crew even before “Freedom” came out. Officially, both over health issues. During the sessions, Deen Castronovo returned to Journey as an additional drummer.

A good 73 minutes of playing time and no fewer than 15 new tracks. Definitely enough material for two albums and too much for one. But. Journey grabbed a ton of arranging and songwriting levers by drawing inspiration from their eighties sound. It’s in their blood. They simply can’t do it any other way. In that sense, “Freedom” is, of the three albums recorded with Arnel Pineda on vocals, at times the most ‘eighties’-sounding Journey record. A pile of seductive choruses that grab you on the first listen. There’s a fantastic new ballad called Still Believe In Love. Everything’s in its standard place, in other words. As if “Eclipse” came out yesterday and not eleven years ago.

So. “Freedom” delivers everything a true Journey fan craves (and a connoisseur of scarab beetles). Four tracks somewhere in the second half of the album stand out from the rest: the rockier, grittier Come Away With Me (comparable to the material on the Hardline debut), Let It Rain (with a seriously heavy riff, almost Sabbath-like by Journey standards – by far the heaviest moment on the album), the riff-scorching and surprisingly progressive-leaning Holdin’ On, and the ‘groove funk’ affair All The Day And All The Night. These could just as easily have landed on one of Neal Schon’s solo albums. All four are fundamentally excellent, and combined with, say, just six songs of the “old-school Journey” kind, they’d have made a more convincing case that Journey are still testing things in their later years that can surprise the listener. And themselves. That impression was stronger on “Eclipse”, even though that album is a full seven minutes shorter.  

As for the rest, tracks like You Got The Best Of Me, the opener Together We Run (with a Cain intro that instantly brings Don’t Stop Believin’ to mind), the ballad Live To Love Again, which goes after the sentimentality of the big hit Faithfully (no wonder, given that Jonathan Cain is the sole writer of both), plus United We Stand, Life Rolls On and Don’t Give Up On Us – the latter an upside-down version of the hit Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) – can hardly sound more classically Journey. If you’re hunting for a radio-friendly hit, there are quite a few candidates on the album. But the top spot undoubtedly goes to The Way We Used To Be. A great marriage of new and old. Pop rhetoric and guitar phrasing walk hand in hand through it flawlessly. From Schon’s strikingly wound-up riff to the sophisticated arrangements, Arnel Pineda’s brilliant vocal musicality and a grabby chorus. A song that keeps growing, building atmosphere all the way through. Chiseled for wide radio airplay. In the eighties, of course. Enter Castronovo. Anyone who follows Journey knows Castronovo could easily be a Journey singer. At gigs the band used to hand him the vocals on Mother, Father and Keep On Running. This time they cashed that in on the album’s third ballad, After Glow, where the fantastic integration of vocal harmonies in the chorus melody hands the crafty arrangers a winning poker hand of aces. Heads up! Castronovo doesn’t drum on “Freedom”.

The only complaint, then, is that the album is too long, that the ‘more predictable’ compositions take the lead when it comes to ideas, and that there’s perhaps a noticeable feeling of ‘caution’. At the very least, the closing Beautiful As You Are could easily have been left off. There’s nothing wrong with it. But by the time we get to it, we’ve heard absolutely everything on “Freedom”. Then again. Anyone who still hasn’t gotten used to this with Journey since 1996, when “Trial By Fire” came out, this author included, will never understand why albums have to run half an hour longer (than the satisfying standard of three-quarters of an hour at most).

Like I said. A true fan of the band can only wish for an album like “Freedom” from Journey, and not a single second of playing time will feel superfluous. The crew has once again proven that in deeds they remain simply masterful. Elder statesmen who know exactly how to handle the goods. In terms of songwriting and production. No flaws. The Cain-Schon partnership is essential. And Schon’s guitar is unique in the rock’n’roll universe, and it stays that way on the new album. Everything Schon touches brings that kind of uniqueness into the compositions all by itself. That authenticity on which the character and work of Journey are built. Pineda remains a brilliant Perry substitute, and it’s a shame Journey record new albums so slowly. In that respect Arnel is still underused. “Freedom” is therefore, in every respect, a triumphant return of pioneering AOR icons.

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Track list:
1. Together We Run
2. Don’t Give Up On Us
3. Still Believe In Love
4. You Got The Best Of Me
5. Live To Love Again
6. The Way We Used To Be
7. Come Away With Me
8. After Glow
9. Let It Rain
10. Holdin On
11. All Day And All Night
12. Don’t Go
13. United We Stand
14. Life Rolls On
15. Beautiful As You Are

Lineup:
Arnel Pineda – vocals
Neal Schon – guitar, backing vocals
Jonathan Cain – keyboards, backing vocals
Randy Jackson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Narada Michael Walden – drums, keyboards, backing vocals
Deen Castronovo – vocals on track no. 8
Jason Derlatka – backing vocals

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