Depart this bloody page and click on this link to go back to the main JOURNEY page ... Departure From Purgatory Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 Talk about a departure ... a departure from sucking!!!! Evolution was pretty much the suckiest album of all time! And it had no hits!! But, all of the sudden, a year later, Journey not only finally has a big hit ("Anyway You Want it") but they also finally have an altogether solid album! ... I'm a bit surprised at this, actually. There is NOT ONE weak song in here. Nada one! A few of these songs sounded like they were going to suck (especially those freaking power ballads), but by the sheer grace of some excellent guitar-work and equally-as-excellent vocal-work from Steve Perry, they are SAVEDDDDD! ... Dudes! When I started out reviewing these Journey albums, I thought they were going to be a good band eventually ... five albums later, they sucked. BUT THE SIXTH ONE IS THE CHARM!!!!!!!!! Dudes. It sure took them awhile. So, count this one up on the tally of good arena-rock albums for you to get if you're so inclined. Frankly, I think your time would be better spent listening to some Roxy Music! ... But, if you're going to listen to arena-rock anyway, you had might as well do it right! And Departure is right! My biggest nit about the album and the only thing that keeps this from becoming a real classic is the lack of solid songwriting. Sure, they excel at the instrument playing and singing and song producing with this album, but there's a stark lack of songs! Apart from "Anyway You Want It," none of these melodies are catchy! NOT ONE!! Some of the melodies are decent, but they're not exactly *catchy*. ... That's kind of important if you really want to make a classic album. BEEF UP THEM MELODIES NEXT TIME!!! ... But compared to that last album ... this is sweet music to my depraved little ears ... But what makes this album good is the singing and instrument-playing. And it was cool. Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 (I wasn't crazy, after all. Journey does eventually evolve into a worthwhile arena-rock band after all ... I was beginning to lose hope!!) Average Song Score: 8.7 (WHAT???!???!??? This is pretty much the most impressive ascent into song-awesomeness any band had ever achieved since ABBA ... that I've listened to ... which isn't a lot, really ............. but surprisingly, there isn't a weak song on here. It still could have used some more melody, though.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (Absolutely solid. This is probably one of the best arena rock albums out there with, perhaps, the most essential arena-rock song ever written ("Anyway You Want It").) Artist Rating: 8.0 (Sorry, but I've got to dock these guys a point. Even though they figured out how to smooth out their sound, this is completely derivative stuff. Not an ounce of innovation here. And any emotion can be credited to Steve Perry's crazy vocalizations and nothing else. Arena rock is arena rock is arena rock.) Track Reviews Anyway You Want It 10/10 THAT'S THE WAY I NEED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, finally, this crappingly awful band does something that's worthwhile of a strong mention. Forever immortalized on local car dealership commercials, this song shall rock everyone's television set and CAR STEREO FOREVAAAA!!! A solid melody, finally, and some perfect electric guitar noodling, finally, and a perfectly-worked power-riff, finally. Journey sucks no more! Walks Like a Lady 8.5/10 Well, that's all the immortal radio hits the band had in them for this album. But, if you really want to listen to the other songs, I'll give them a whirl ... This one is actually a quite decent blues song. It's polished well without sounding too commercial, the instrumentals are pretty good, and the melody is nice. It's not nearly as mind-numbingly awesome as "Anyway You Want it," but it's a worthy, more lightweight follow-up. This band suddenly learned a few things about solid songsmanship. I doubt they would ever have been able to pull off a thing like this in that Evolution thing ... shows what they get for siding with Darwin ... Someday Soon 8/10 Not a great song, but at least it's fairly solid. The melody has few hooks, but it was executed rather well. ... This is just an ordinary mid-tempoed arena rock song when it's all said and done. Nothing special. I do enjoy the lead guitar work, though. People and Places 8/10 Dudes ... they've been overdosing a little too much on that Trivial Pursuit ... This is probably a better song than "Someday Soon," just because this is a POWER ballad, but ... the only thing really good about it is the chorus. And it just takes too long for them to get to it. But an 8 is still quite a commendable score for this band. Precious Time 8.5/10 Ohhhhhh... Boy did Journey ever get out of the Medieval ages. They're not a *great* band, mind you, but we're already to the middle of the album and there's nary a crappy song. This one really could have used a better melody, but ... every Journey song except two need that! This song manages to kick without the melody sporting a good vocal performance from Perry and some solid instrumentals. Where Were You 9/10 Whoah ... they're really getting quite decent here ... This is a really very nice arena-rock song (without really a great melody), but they completely make it up with their power-instrumentals. The rumors were true. Journey sucks no more! I'm Cryin' 8.5/10 Dudes ... I seriously hope my ears aren't deceiving me. But there STILL hasn't been a crappy song! This one has a lot of energy to it! I still don't think the melody is that great ... but that soaring vocal performance and dang great electric guitar noodling makes this power ballad CLICK like Click McClickman of Clickton State University, winner of the Click Prize for Clicking Clickies. Line of Fire 9/10 WHAT THE HECK?????? YET ANOTHER solid song??? These guys must have sold their souls to the devil or something. By all accounts does this song KICK! ... Even those cheesy gunshot noises are awesome. Arena rock has rarely been so blessed with an entire album like this before. ... I'm still waiting for a bad song. Departure 4.5/5 ...Interesting... This sounds almost like a David Bowie/Brian Eno instrumental track from Heroes. It's only 40 seconds long, so ... ummmm ... might these guys have some good influences??? ... Well, apparently, they didn't get influenced for more than 40 seconds! ... This is quite interesting. Good Morning Girl 9.5/10 I am totally baffled. You know how every arena-rock band and their mothers have to come up with a "touching" ballad? Well, Journey does it here, except it's actually rather touching! ... Perry's vocal performance is just perfect. I don't know what else to say!! Stay Awhile 9/10 And they do it again! CRAAAAAAAP!!! Another excellent power arena-ballad! With ANOTHER great Perry vocal performance!!!! WHAT THE HECKKKKKKKKK???? I swear this band sucked an album ago. Homemade Love 8/10 A really stupid song title ... and a song that might leave a little more to be desired. In fact, if I wasn't so impressed with those two fine power ballads that proceeded this, I might feel so terrible as to give this song a 7 or a 7.5. Nevertheless, it's an 8, because an arena-rock album must end with a Kissian-like power rocker. Besides which, the electric guitar solo is just suuuuperrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And those Perry-wailings at the end of the song are kind of entertaining. ... I wish I could wail like that ... I could try, but I might get a visit from the kind psychiatrists tomorrow morning. Depart your state of Internet surfing complacency and dare to send me your thoughts about this album here.

All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. His gums bleed for no dentist.