JOURNEY – Arrival

I’ve been waiting a long time for this album, and it’s even better than expected. A Japanese version have been sold for quite some time now, and some of the bands most faithful fans have complained about the amount of ballads. On this release there’s two more songs, and the album have been spinning in my CD player ever since I got it. Sure, there are a lot of ballads on the album, but there’s a lot of cool rock tunes as well.

Opening song Higher Place, shows off the new Journey, featuring soaring vocals from Steve Augeri, and thundering drums from Deen Castronovo. Probably one of the best Journey songs ever, and the perfect introduction to the album. After that powerful opening, two ballads follows, and Signs of life should get a special mention, being one of the best cuts on the album, and could very well end up as an american top 10 single. All the things is a song that could be a Bad English song, with tasty riffing from Neal Schon, and a quite heavy song.

Arrival switches effortlessly between dealing out ballads and rockers, making this a truly great record. If you’ve ever been into the band, you should give it a try, and if you’ve never heard Journey, check it out anyway. They are probably the best melodic band in the world.
Highlights: Higher place, Signs of life, I got a reason, Nothing comes close, Kiss me softly, To be alive again