Journey

The Essential Journey doesn't bear a title that's too hyperbolic for the collection it represents. Over the course of two discs and 32 songs, the retrospective winds through all of the group's biggest songs – not just the hit singles, but the album radio favorites and concert staples that kept the group popular on the charts and in the arenas until last third of the '80s (and, for the record, everything on the previous Greatest Hits record is here). The key to the collection is that it doesn't abide strict chronological order. Instead, it's divided into two, with all the biggest hits on the first disc and the second acting like a "more of the best" collection, and within each of the discs, the tracks flow like a concert. The result is a first-class, definitive collection for the serious Journey listener (and, despite many skeptics, there are many out there – which is not hard to understand, since arena rock never got any better than this).

Arriving 11 years after 2011's Eclipse, Freedom is Journey's 15th studio effort and their third outing with vocalist Arnel Pineda. It also marks the return of Raised on Radio bassist Randy Jackson, who stepped in after the band's abrupt split with founding member Ross Valory in 2020. Journey's post-Steve Perry releases have been reliable yet unremarkable, with showrunners Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain attempting to wring out every last bit of headband sweat from the group's chart-topping heydays. That trend continues on Freedom, a relentlessly anthemic and underwhelming set filled with over-the-counter power ballads and bloated AOR rockers that do very little to earn a 70-minute runtime. The performances, however, are top-notch, with Narada Michael Walden and former member Deen Castronovo sharing drum duties, Schon flexing his still impressive melodic-lead muscles…

Raised on Radio is the ninth studio album by the American rock band Journey, released in May 1986 on the Columbia Records label. It is the only album to feature bassist Randy Jackson, bassist Bob Glaub and drummer Larrie Londin. The album spawned four top 40 singles in the US: "Girl Can't Help It" (No. 17), "Be Good to Yourself" (No. 9), "I'll Be Alright Without You" (No. 14), and "Suzanne" (No. 17). It went to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and it was certified double platinum in the USA.

Promotional EP featuring four tracks. "Only the Young" is a song written by Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry and Neal Schon of the band Journey. Previously intended for Journey's 1983 album Frontiers, it was pulled from the album within days of recording in favor of songs "Back Talk" and "Troubled Child". It was then sold to the band Scandal, who released it in 1984 on their album Warrior, as the first commercially released version of the song. Journey's version was included on the soundtrack to the 1985 film Vision Quest, and was also released as a single which reached the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.