Journey 'Frontiers'

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'Frontiers' - just as the USA did post 9/11, Journey threw away all their goodwill (after similar destruction-by-MTV) by releasing an angry belligerent overbearing paranoid mess of a record, complete with newly-acquired Brit poodle (J Cain) Mannheim Steamrollering all over everything with his synths in place of Rollie's rockin' piano & B3. Perry's voice has dropped about three octaves and gotten all scratchy and murky, no more keening "Lights" and good-humored "Walks Like a Lady"-type asides, just mean-spirited muttering ("Edge of the Blade" - "if it cuts you, enjoy yourself"!!! 'EotB' itself is a grim contest as to 'let's make the gtr solo go longer and longer and simultaneously make the DX7 go louder and louder and see who gives up first'! Normally I wouldn't mind but Neal Schon can't do extended solos cuz he has a short attention span)

Also, "Backtalk" could possibly be adopted by the current US administration as their response to any conceivable dissent anywhere from anybody. Musically it's quite unusual for Journey in that it sounds too primitive and rudimentary for even Kiss or Gary Glitter, (even more jarring considering all the smug prog-lite shit all over the rest of the album), and there's no melody or actual rhyming/scanning 'lyrics', just Perry screeching Fleischer/Ashcroft-isms over and over. Even AOR diehards never mention this record, perhaps titles like "After the Fall" and "Rubicon" were more significant re the band and certain wounded superpowers than originally intended!

― dave q, Monday, 2 June 2003 10:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Certain quarters of the current US administration believe that by deliberately appearing to be belligerent, unpredictable and violent, they will be quicker in achieving their goals" - E Todd (some French guy)

― dave q, Monday, 2 June 2003 10:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

did the US have any 'goodwill' pre-9/11?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 2 June 2003 13:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

As well as the obvious capitalistic statistics (automatic goodwill from those who either aspire to or are comforted by power and pre-eminence) they had some credibility from the Santana connections, huge AOR fanbase from relentless touring and the distinctive 'scarab' logo as well as wary admiration from some quarters following the fall of the Berlin Wall, however the 'scarab' was tellingly shoved to the margin of the 'Frontiers' cover in favor of an ugly bluish head reminiscent of the 2001 space baby with the word 'Journey' emanating from it in a feeble attempt to a) re-assert their all-seeing universalist omnipotence b) allude to their collective psychedelic progressivist pioneering past, which occasionally was resurrected in totemic form as an ex-post-facto justification from groundlevel fundamentalist backlash

― dave q, Monday, 2 June 2003 13:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

eleven months pass...

this died too early a death.

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 16 May 2004 07:45 (twenty years ago) link

God, is Dave the only English guy who even knows who this band was?

Anyway, isn't blowing chunks over a Journey record's only going triple platinum a year and a half after release (i.e., late '84) kinda wasted motion, given that they continue to move units twenty years later?

"groundlevel fundamentalist backlash" = what? Duran Duran also going platinum in '83?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 16 May 2004 08:47 (twenty years ago) link

dave you FULE, this is their best album for several important reasons:

1) "Separate Ways" owns almost everything else that was on radio that year, and was one of the darkest and most non-pop pop hits up until that point.

2) The power ballad, "Faithfully", was not quite good enough to be snapped up and butchered by Mariah Carey.

3) Dude! Those jumpsuits they were wearing on the album cover artwork! Best band uniform shy of Devo and Kraftwerk!

4) If you did a Mad-magazine-style fold-in on the cover you can make the name of the band JOEY and reveal the hidden design in the cover: a space-age dildo!!

http://ox.eicat.ca/~scarruthers/ilx/journey.jpg

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 16 May 2004 14:33 (twenty years ago) link

The top half looks more like a space age vagina.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 May 2004 14:35 (twenty years ago) link

Hermaphrojourney!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 16 May 2004 14:42 (twenty years ago) link

Don't stop transsexualin'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 May 2004 14:43 (twenty years ago) link

dude walks like a lady

― dave q, Sunday, 16 May 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago) link

I like Seperate Ways and Faithfully.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 16 May 2004 14:46 (twenty years ago) link