Next, by Journey

When we think of the band Journey, we tend to think of one of the greatest arena rock bands of all time, with massive hits and decades of sold-out shows, yet this is not how they began at all. Instead of tens of thousands of screaming fans and songs played in constant rotation on the radio, the band began with three albums that are virtually unknown. Nowadays, a band with three flop albums would be consigned to the dustbin of history, never to be heard again. Yet it was not uncommon in this age for an act to take three or four albums to have even the slightest hint of success, and provided a band had a good enough relationship with their label, labels took the time to develop their talent and promote them in the hopes that their investments would pay off. So that is how we find this album, the third album of Journey’s discography, being released in 1977 despite their first two albums having done next to nothing as far as sales and hit success go. (Hint, this album would not do better, and it would not be until Steve Perry joined the fold the next year that things would turn around and we would get into Journey songs that people start knowing about.) We know that this album wasn’t a hit, but is it any good? Let’s find out.

This album, album, which clocks in at an economical 8 songs and 38 minutes, begins with “Spaceman,” a lovely and mellow song where the singer opines that he is not a spaceman or supernatural, but just a man, all to a searing guitar solo by Schon. In a different world, it is possible to imagine this song becoming a hit on FM radio and a rock classic, but no. “People” features a gorgeous if quite lengthy intro, followed by somewhat ominous and often incomprehensible lyrics spit out in an almost late era John Lennon style. “I Would Find You” has a gorgeous introduction which quickly moves into a spare and slow verse with singing somewhat low in the mix at the start that eventually gets to an almost Led Zeppelin sort of chorus. “Here We Are” has surprisingly sweet instrumentation for its introduction before switching to a more driving instrumentation as it begins the vocals about a minute in. The music is great here but the lyrics are admittedly somewhat pedestrian. “Hustler” begins with a brief hard rock intro before the singing and instrumentation match the hard rock vibe with instruments dominating here. “Next” begins with a driving if somewhat repetitive instrumental introduction before a more mellow mid-tempo rock song moaning about a relationship gone wrong follows. “Nickel & Dime” starts with another long and somewhat repetitive introduction with melodic riffs, and it is not until about the middle of the song that one realizes this will be a pretty solid instrumental track rather than having lyrics, which admittedly would have been good to have done before in this album. “Karma” ends the album with some frantic instrumentation and some muddled lyrics, which might have hinted at some of the desperation within the band at making something stick in the rock landscape at this time.

At the end of three albums, it was not exactly clear where Journey was going to go next. This album is not a bad one by any means, but it is not a great one and it is clear that the production is pushing the instrumentation high in the mix and keeping the undistinguished vocals low in the mix. It seems that most people involved with the band probably realized that even if this band wasn’t the strongest material the band had worked with so far, the music was stronger even being a bit repetitive sometimes than the singing and lyrics were. We, with the benefit of hindsight, know that Journey was about to turn things around, but it was likely not remotely as clear to the group at the time. After three failed albums, Journey was about to take a massive leap forward in popularity. All it took was one of the greatest rock singers of all time to join the group after his previous group fell apart on the verge of superstardom. That, however, is a story for another day, for their next album, which would finally garner some popular and critical acclaim for the group.