20th Anniversary of one of the best Melodic Rock Albums of All-time!
100% Spicy
On April 2, 2001, Sony Records released Journey’s eagerly awaited follow-up to the Grammy nominated Trial By Fire (1996), with the addition of new lead vocalist, Steve Augeri (Tall Stories) and drummer / back up vocalist, Deen Castronovo (Bad English). Arrival featured founding member, guitarist Neal Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory on bass.
20 years have flown by, faster than you can say, Infinity… A short bit of history, my firm, Vining Management, had honor of promoting Journey’s Arrival across Social Media for Sony / Columbia Records when Digital was the “new” frontier. A dream come true, as Journey had long been one of my all-time favorite bands. The chance to promote them was huge for my new music management firm, that was currently working with artists such as Action, Mars Hill and MASS.
Thanks to notoriety gained from Frontiers Records and then the networking done while working on Arrival for Sony / Columbia… Vining Management quickly grew. We went on to promote, manage and / or executive produce projects such as Neal Schon and Jeff Scott Soto’s Soul SirkUS, Hardline, China Blue, featuring Josh Ramos (The Storm), Machines of Grace (WickedWitch).
If only, we knew then, just how much Napster and then Apple’s iTunes would fully transform, more like totally disrupt, the entertainment business, forever! Hard to imagine, then, that twenty years later, the age of streaming has now totally disrupted not only music, but gaming and films and television series.
The “review” you’ll read below, is from my very first Website, ronvining.com, started in 1996, that had an extremely popular section called RonReviews (that’s how Sony found me). It was the IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes of its time, before those platforms existed. I’m happy that things have come full circle and I’ve recently created and launched AppFlicks… the fulfillment of that idea, just 2 decades later.
With that, let’s talk about Arrival, produced by Kevin, “The Caveman” Shirley, which, in my opinion is and remains a sonic masterpiece. He’s one of the greatest producers and I place Arrival as one of Journey’s 3 best albums, of all-time. Encourage you to check out either the American (2001) or Japanese (2000) release. Standouts: “All The Way” & “To Be Alive Again” will surpass the expectations of any melodic rock fan. I promise!
The below, is taken from a 2001 archive of www.ronvining.com > RonReviews:
On April 3, 2001, Sony records finally released, world-wide, JOURNEY’s much anticipated and much delayed, new album – Arrival…
Lead Guitarist, NEAL SCHON’s soaring solos and frontman, STEVE AUGERI’s melodic vocals; dominate this perfect release from start to finish! To listen to clips of the first two singles, click on the links below:
Links to “Higher Place” http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Journey/Sounds/Arrival/HigherPlace_EA.ram http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Journey/Sounds/Arrival/HigherPlace_EA.wav
Links to “All The Way” http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Journey/Sounds/Arrival/AllTheWay_EA.ram http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Journey/Sounds/Arrival/AllTheWay_EA.wav
Here is the track listing for the Japanese release:
Higher Place 5:09, All The Way 3:35, Signs of Life 4:54, All The Things 4:22, Loved By You 4:02, Livin’ To Do 6:24, I Got A Reason 4:18, With Your Love 4:25, Lifetime Of Dreams 5:29, Live And Breathe 5:12, Kiss Me Softly 4:48, I’m Not That Way 4:23, We Will Meet Again 5:05, To Be Alive Again 4:47.
Here is the track listing for the US release:
Higher Place 5:09, All The Way 3:35, Signs of Life 4:54, All The Things 4:22, Loved By You 4:02, Livin’ To Do 6:24, World Gone Wild 6:00, I Got A Reason 4:18, With Your Love 4:25, Lifetime Of Dreams 5:29, Live And Breathe 5:12, Nothin’ Comes Close 5:41, To Be Alive Again 4:21, Kiss Me Softly 4:48, We Will Meet Again 5:05.
Tracks in red indicate bonus tracks specific to the US or Japanese version.
Having seen this album develop in four phases, I was quite happy for its world-wide release. The album first appeared as a collection of poor quality demos on Napster during the summer of 2000. In August 2000, I obtained and reviewed the 13 track US advance promo CD of Arrival; giving it my highest recommendation. Then the rumors started, the US and Japanese release dates were pushed back, then cancelled… An album which originally was announced by the band to come out in 1999, was now in limbo.
Then, on October 25, 2000, Sony released Arrival – but in Japan only. The album was restricted to that region, however, I received a copy less than a week later. Though I had been listening to the advance disc daily, I was thrilled to finally hold the official Japanese release in my hands, as I had feared that this almost flawless recording would never be released to the masses.
According to the band, Napster played a huge role in the album’s delay in the US and its eventual evolution. When the entire disc found its way on to the Napster site prior to its Japanese release, it was quickly downloaded by Journey fans across the globe. Many fans criticized the album for being too mellow.
I believe this criticism came more from expectation than from actual disappointment. In interviews, guitarist SCHON often said that he wanted to rock on this release, so may fans were expecting just that. Though there may not have been enough “rockers” on the Japanese version, the songs (both the music & the lyrics) were some of JOURNEY’s strongest ever. And this is coming from a die hard JOURNEY / STEVE PERRY fan!
JOURNEY responded to their fan’s comments and as reported by Andrew McNeice at www.melodicrock.com, NEAL SCHON made the following statement about adding new tracks to the US release: “They are two rockers. One is very up tempo and heavy, the other is slinky blues, funk rock. So maybe the coolest thing that came out of this Napster ordeal, is that we got to get the feedback from our fans on the album. They wanted two more rockers…so they are getting them….and To Be Alive Again.”
The two new tracks, World Gone Wild and Nothin’ Comes Close, were recorded in November and were included on a 15 track US release. To Be Alive Again which was to be the Japanese “bonus” track was added and edited to make room for the extra tracks. The gentle ballad, I’m Not That Way, was cut from the 14 track Japanese release and became that version’s bonus track.
According to Meg at The Storm Page, SCHON said that two additional tracks: Lose Myself In You (JONATHAN CAIN on lead vocals which now can be found on his new album – Anthology) and another song (title unknown?), were recorded during the original Arrival recording sessions, but were not included on the Japanese release.
Possible tracks could have been Sea of Emotions, Alone Tonight, Touch The Sky, Like Only Lovers Do, Rest Of These Days, One World, and Surrender written with NIGHT RANGER’s JACK BLADES (the first three can now be found on Jack’s 2004 solo album on Frontiers Records and the last two can be found on Mickey Thomas’ Over the Edge 2004 Frontiers release including Eyes Wide Open by Jon Cain). It was hoped that they and some other outtakes (like the often talked about revamped version of Remember Me & the acoustic version of I’m Not That Way), and the live track, Good Time Tonight, from their ’99 tour would have shown up as “b-sides” on a few CD-5s but that never happened as Sony never released any CD singles for either Higher Place, All The Way or the final single – With Your Love. Unfortunately, Sony never promoted this awesome release! Fortunately, I have radio station CD promos of all three singles with different edits / cuts, as well as one for Remember Me (from the Armageddon Soundtrack), along with some international variations).
When STEVE PERRY left the band, I thought that the journey would be over… not so! Though PERRY can never be replaced… STEVE AUGERI has not only stepped up to the plate each time that I saw him on JOURNEY’s past three tours in ’98, ’99, & ’01 but his vocals. with the backing of DEEN CASTRONOVO, hit a monster grand slam, across Arrival.
If you only buy one CD this year, let it be Arrival. Though it will not be the most popular selling album of 2001, in my opinion, it is by far the best album of 2001. This album is a perfect ten! It is pure JOURNEY, it is power-ballad heaven!
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While the Arrival has been out for some time, it makes this anniversary review, no less important as the album can be widely found across Apple Music, Pandora, Prime Music, Spotify and more… If you are a fan of arena rock, classic rock, adult orientated rock with well written songs, ranging from ballads to rockers… soaring vocals, shredding guitar, high energy key tones, monster bass and drums, then Journey’s Arrival is for you. I give Arrival (US) 4.5 and Arrival (Japan) 5 / 5 JoulePeppers, it’s 100% Spicy!
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Wow! What an amazing review then. I can feel the excitement. Yes! We love journey. 🤩 I should listen to this album.