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Released in 1988 (review written January 5, 2024)
Rating: 9/10 I first came across Journey at some point in early 7th grade. I vaguely remember asking my mom about what classic rock bands were good and she mentioned Journey, Boston, and Foreigner. Then when we went to Target, I bought a brand new CD of Journey's Greatest Hits. Nowadays I tend to dislike compilation albums because it doesn't paint an accurate picture of a band's history, but as a kid that stuff didn't matter and this album is just about perfect in a lot of ways. 1. Only the Young - A solid start to an album. The song is upbeat and very "normal". Whoever put together the order had a good idea frontloading with this one. It's plain and simple, with something to do about how awesome youth is I suppose. I never paid attention to the lyrics on this one and mostly just anticipated later songs. Essentially, "paying my dues" before I could hear the best. 2. Don't Stop Believin' - Ah, the song everyone knows! I used to sing this one at home, alone. Some of Steve Perry's singing is slurred and hard to understand. I only later got the words right after looking them up on the internet. For some reason around 2008 or 2009, kids in high school were really into this song. I never discovered why. Was it a viral Youtube recommendation? Was it on a popular TV show? Why were teenagers who were previously obsessed with Lady Gaga and Soulja Boy and crap like that suddenly super into Journey? What in the world was going on? I still don't know and probably never will. It reminds me of the zoomers these days being into TikTok and how old songs are used on some clip and blow up. Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, Kate Bush all seemed to have another day under the sun because of algorithms and, likely, a last minute marketing push by rights holders. Creepy. Anyway, the song is really upbeat but still motivating in a way that dour, pessimistic me at the age of 12 still liked it. Another memory I have of it is telling my 7th grade English teacher that Richard Herr and I would play the song together for the class. I don't know what I was thinking. Richard said he played piano so I thought it would work out but when I showed him the song he said it was way too hard. Oh well. I was so nervous about having to come clean that we couldn't do it but thankfully Mrs. Meyers forgot about the whole thing. 3. Wheel in the Sky - This is where the real Journey shows itself. 'Wheel' used to be my original favorite on this album. It's that driving rhythm you hear that gets me going. Now, as an adult, I can try and appreciate the lyrics better. The wheel in the sky probably refers to the Wheel of Fortuna, maybe the sun, as well as Ra, which makes sense considering Journey's Egyptian scarab cover and masonic tendencies. Looking back, that doesn't bode well for my view of the music but at least it still sounds really awesome. I might have listened to this one too much though, or maybe I just matured, because it isn't my favorite anymore. 4. Faithfully - A real ballad. Steve Perry's voice is pretty damn good here. The song isn't much to write home about. Some would call it cheesy but I still love it. "The road ain't no place to start a famine". I wish Steve would cut it out with the mealy mouth words. I suppose it's a style. The song is apparently about how tough it is being a traveling musician. It probably appeals to truckers and that sort who aren't home a lot to see their family. 5. I'll Be Alright Without You - Another glimpse at the real Journey. It oozes late nights in the patio, looking up at the stars, wondering where life will take you. If I could smoke as a kid, I'd have been doing it to this song. Those girls I used to like in school... where are they now? It's hard to say I've been "alright without them", you know? I hope they're better off than me. 6. Any Way You Want It - Not my favorite, no sir. It's another "crowd pleaser" for what they used to call arena rock. 7. Ask the Lonely - This was my favorite song after I got tired of Wheel in the Sky. That synthesizer is thick, and the song feels so urgent. It really, really appealed to pre-teen me because of that urgency. I always felt like my life was going to end any day, that I needed to find love NOW, that the girl I was in love with just HAD to know right NOW! I'd sing this song a lot on my own. I also recall a Japanese version of this song, or something similar to it. The singer sounded remarkably like Steve Perry, especially that smoky part where he says "picking up the pieces", but in Japanese. I had the song as a RealMedia file (.rm) and put it on a floppy disk in 2006 but when I found the floppy, the disk was unreadable. Like tears in the rain... 8. Who's Crying Now - Another late night song where 12-year old me would be metaphorically dragging a smoke and gazing longingly in his mind's eye at the image of adolescent affection, all while the cable channel gave way to dull infomercials with Billy Mays selling me junk I couldn't possibly need. This song has to be scientifically designed to make you feel down. The guitar solo where it really wails with the vibrato, especially that slow vibrato, and the piano responds, is just magically depressing. 9. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - I'd be feeling suicidal by this point in the album as a kid. I'd be feeling absolutely desperate for the girl of my dreams to accept me. Sometimes it was Jenna (I sat behind her in my science class), sometimes it was Mico (the asian girl), or Audra (the other asian girl), or Emily D. (red-haired girl who played piano in jazz band). Doesn't even matter anymore. Listen to those lyrics: "some day love will find you, break those chains that bind you, one night will remind you, how we touched and went our separate ways". This song really tugged and pulled on my heart, with both the longing sadness of Journey's slower songs and the driving rock urgency of others. It has a great synthesizer too, and Steve's voice is smoky as ever. I really prefer it to his nasal one. 10. Lights - Yuck. Way to ruin the mood. I'd start falling asleep at this point in the CD if it was late at night, and might not make any farther. This can be classified as another "crowd pleaser" arena rock snore. Also, it's the theme song for the San Francisco Giants, which makes it a little cooler at least. 11. Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' - Ugh. The worst song on the album by far! It sounds simple, the lyrics are dumb, and it made 12-year old me squirm with cringe before that was considered a popular word to use. I guess the album makers needed to lighten the mood. 12. Open Arms - This one is slow and happy, which should make me hate it but no, it's similar to Faithfully. It's just beautiful enough for jaded old me to enjoy. I feel like this is the song of my dad. It's a new interpretation that just came to me. After all the mean things he did to my mom and I, he really tried to change... he must have been so lonely before he died. I'm sorry Nya. I love you so much. 13. Girl Can't Help It - Here we have one of those songs that I rarely got to as a kid. I'd either be asleep by now or checked out because of the happy songs. But as a teenager on to adult, these last ones became my favorite. This song was also included in the Japanese Journey RealMedia floppy disk I had. I sure wish I could find it. The chord changes are really different and interesting than other songs. It has a vague feeling similar to the band Talk Talk. 14. Send Her My Love - And here is the other half of these later songs. I'd say this is my current favorite song by a slight margin. "It's been so long since I've seen her face"... "Send her my love, memories remain, roses never fade". God that hits me hard. From a distant perspective, quite literally 17 years later, it really hurts. This applies to all the girls I loved. Maya, Emily, the middle school girls, Jacqui, and the last one, Stephanie. Oh, Stephanie. I hope he treats you well. This was a song I'd listen to sometimes in the group home, thinking about Stephanie. Goodbye to all the girls. I hope writing this is my way of letting go. 15. Be Good to Yourself - Way to be a buzzkill. I guess the album makers couldn't end on such a downer. The only bright side is that I put this song on a playlist for my mom to start her online classes when she was forced to teach using a computer during the plandemic. It's nostalgic to her now since that was her last year of teaching (sadly). Anyways, that's the album! The ups and downs are necessary, even if I tend to dislike the ups. You could say the compilation really takes you on a... journey. Associations:
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