Another winner from Journey

In February of 1983, Journey released its followup to the monster selling Escape titled Frontiers.

The album retained the same lineup as its predecessor (singer Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, bass player Ross Valory, keyboardist/occasional rhythm guitarist Jonathan Cain and drummer Steve Smith) and was once again co-produced by Mike Stone and Kevin Elson.

How was Frontiers(as fans like my mother a major hard rock connoseur was when she bought the album), was it as good as its predecessor or worse or better, read on!

The rocker and first big hit on this album Separate Ways kicks the album off in a big way. This track alone, two time-specific trends are quite evident: a hard rock and a heavy reliance on keyboards at a time when keyboards were becoming more prevelant throughout pop and rock music. The first of two ballads Send Her My Love follows and was a great song. Chain Reaction follows and is another classic hard rocker. After The Fall follows and was an amazing melodic anthem and was used in the Tom Cruise movie Risky Business and in fact Ross Valory did not play bass on this track and featured Randy Johnson on bass as Ross could not play a funk line properly. The first half closes with the all-time masterpiece ballad Faithfully and was the biggest hit from this album. Strangely, all five songs on the first half of this album received significant airplay, and four of these five tracks were Top 40 hits.

The second half of the album (or "second side" of the album back when I had this on cassette and my mom on record) kicks off with Edge Of The Blade which has a strong hard guitar sound from Schon and a soaring vocal from Perry. Troubled Child is the most melodic track on this part of the album, and it is still a great song. Then comes the heavy Back Talk which shocked me the first time I heard it. Steve is actually screaming with rage during most of this very different song and had Cain and Schon trading power chords on guitar during this track. The title cut follows and is one of my favorites on the album. The album closes with Rubicon and was a great rocker to close a pretty much rocking album.

Frontiers went all the way to #2 in the US in the spring of 1983 and sold SIX MILLION COPIES which is just as well as its predecessor.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Journey's Last Great 80s Album

FRONTIERS was Journey's last great 80s album. The album seemed frought with tension in many places, but that just adds to the excitement. The best songs here are the hardest-rocking ones: "Chain Reaction" and "Edge Of The Blade", the latter of which accurately describes the anger I feel towards many of the members of my old bowling league that ultimately led to my not rejoining in 2002. "Rubicon" and "Send Her My Love" are two other great ones here, but "Faithfully", though very good, is a bit overplayed. You should buy this album along with INFINITY, EVOLUTION, DEPARTURE, CAPTURED, and ESCAPE- preferably all at once.

Worthy Follow-Up To "Escape"

I recently bought this album and was very surprised by how much it actually rocks. None of the singles that I heard from "Frontiers" over the years impressed me much (other than "Send Her My Love," which is arguably Journey's best ballad ever).



The first half of the album is very good, but it really takes off starting with "Edge Of The Blade." I believe that "Frontiers" is a worthy follow up to "Escape," Journey's best hard-rock album ever. The only misstep is "Back Talk," which is too heavy metal (in a bad sort of 80's way) and not conducive to Steve Perry's vocal style at all.



Stand-out tracks according to me: "Edge Of The Blade," "Troubled Child," "Frontiers," "Rubicon," "Send Her My Love," "Chain Reaction," and "After The Fall."



I had to leave out "Separate Ways," and "Faithfully" because they were both overplayed to death when they were originally released. I never really liked "Seperate Ways" anyway. I always thought it sounded like Journey had spent 5 minutes writing it and 5 minutes recording it, which is why I never wanted to buy this album in the first place. I'm glad I finally did, though, because it is a worthy follow up to "Escape."