Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You cannot deny beauty its place in your observation of the world, if you do then the freedom you wish for yourself is a contradiction, and the refusal of others to see a form of splendour in action is an act of prevention, a forbidding social menace to which you be rightly lambasted and condemned for. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but the Freedom it allows the individual is one that urges the soul to dig a little deeper, investigate more than what may lay on the surface, and in the end understand that the world needs truth in beauty, not an elaborate

Freedom is a journey, or rather in this case, and after more than a decade away from the studio, American stalwarts of the A.O.R. scene Journey and their brand-new album is one undertaken to join the greats of having produced material through six different decades, and whilst only the ultimate Journey man Neal Schon has been part of the overall arc since the band’s conception, it should come as no surprise that this modern addition to the catalogue sounds as though the road map in which the band have followed has once more that their sound, their infectious wide-ranging musical announcements, can pin point the best way to travel towards the ultimate expression.

That is a point of freedom, it is not to do exactly as you would wish and tread across everyone else’s dreams, it is to make sure that those who have believed in you are further inspired to undertake or continue their own journey, by whatever ever transport is available, be it slow and methodical, or upbeat, fast and extensive, so that they too can taste independence of spirit, the liberty of openness.

The line-up may have altered extensively over the years, but the belief has never altered, and as Freedom pushes the listener deeper, the lyrical accomplishment connecting with the sound with meaningful respect, so Neal Schon, long term band member and keyboard creationist Jonathan Cain, Arnel Pineda, Jason Derlatka, Randy Jackson, Narada Michael Walden, and Deen Castronovo, who makes a special lead vocal appearance on the track After Glow, come together with a blinding force, that belief that even a decade away from the tightly bound walls of the studio, there is magic to be unlocked and explored.

Across tracks such as Together We Run, Still Believe In Love, The Way We Used To Be, United We Stand, You Got The Best Of Me, and the aforementioned After Glow, the reappearance of Journey is not to be considered a deviation from the new wave of music, but a timely reminder of just how extraordinary and adept the band are. No matter the incarnation of the group, they remain a constant and beautiful force in which explore musical Freedom with.

Ian D. Hall