Departure (1980) 


 

 1. Any Way You Want It
 2. Walks Like a Lady
 3. Someday Soon
 4. People and Places
 5. Precious Time
 6. Where Were You
 7. I'm Cryin'
 8. Line of Fire
 9. Departure
 10.Good Morning Girl
 11.Stay Awhile
 12.Homemade Love

 

As far as arena rockers go, Journey just kept on pressing forward and becoming more and more popular. They hadn't quite exploded yet, but they were slowly and surely developing quite a strong fan base. This album doesn't sound that much different from the two albums that preceded it, but that was probably the point - and that was a good thing indeed.

They do try to branch out slightly on this rocker. Sometimes it works better than other times, but the band stays loyal to its rock and roll roots that it had been firmly entrenched since Steve Perry joined the band. Precious Time has a bit of a blues feel to it, but maybe that's just because it has some mean harmonica playing throughout. Also in this category is the Hammond B-3 heavy Walks Like a Lady that, unknown to most or all, would be Gregg Rollie's "farewell" of sorts (he would leave the band after this tour), even though the track is credited to Steve Perry as the lone composer. My favorite of the experimental pieces is the beautiful, almost new-ageish (but still definitely Journey) People and Places that, like so many of their recent releases, highlight how strong these guys are when they harmonize together. Quite remarkable since on their first few albums, they placed almost no emphasis on the singing at all.

They still know how to rock. Every Journey fan knows and loves Any Way You Want It , and although not as many know Where Were You, they probably should since it's arguably even better. Near the end of the record, the guys seem to be running out of steam a little bit. The last four songs sound a bit disjointed, and the average length of each of the tracks comes out to be about two minutes each.

Believe it or not, this was one of the band's few albums where they actually kept the same lineup since the last album. There really have been a lot of people in this band. The sound of the record, however, is about as close as you could come to identifying the band's signature sound of pure, heart-felt arena rock.

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