Trollheart

Alice --- 2002

Music from yet another play, Alice is a slightly longer album than its co-released mate, Blood money, but from what I remember did not impress me one bit. Still not sure why he decided (or the label decided) to release both albums simultaneously. An odd decision, I would have thought, forcing people either to pay double what they were expecting or, worse, having to choose between the two. Again, both Waits and Kathleen write all the songs, and produce the album together.

It opens on the title track, something reminiscent of his older albums, a slow, soulful number with alto sax from Colin Stetson, making this I believe the first album in some time not to feature Ralph Carney. It's a moody, morose piece that drags its feet along slowly, stretching out its last cigarette as the sodium halo from the streetlights temporarily spotlight it then vanish as it moves on down the street. A low vocal from Waits, very restrained and almost tired in nature, then the sound of a lonesome train whistle and the chug-chug-chugging of the engine introduces a harder, rawer vocal for “Everything you can think”, with a very Franks Wild Years feel, but again slow and meandering. I was going to say nice marimba, but I see it's actually Swiss hand bells, and there's also a wavering, twisting sort of carnival rhythm to the song.

Things stay slow for the rather nice “Flower's grave”, riding on nice cello, violin and clarinet; the general melody puts me in mind of “On the nickel”, while “No one knows I'm gone” has an interesting line when Waits sings ”Hell above and Heaven below”. Again things move slowly and stately, sort of like being in a funeral procession I feel. The music is good but it's a relief to get some uptempo finally when “Kommienezuspadt” (no, I don't know) kicks things up nicely with a manic song that just seems to be Waits enjoying himself as the band goes all New Orleans jazz. Some suitably crazy laughter from the man and we're into “Poor Edward”, where everything slows down again with a kind of waltz, driven on piano and cello, but tips up nicely for the shuffle of “Table top Joe” with a real Vegas swing.

“Lost in the harbour” has some good pump organ and again cello and violin, another slow effort but with a nice bittersweet feel, sort of reminds me of Final cut era Floyd for some reason, and I have great hopes for a song titled “We're all mad here”. Kicks off in a “Singapore/Underground” vein; in fact it's very “Underground” now that I listen to it carefully. It's not the uptempo loonfest I had expected --- no “I'll be gone” or “Cemetery polka” here --- but at least it's a little more interesting. A dark ballad then for “Watch her disappear”, which recalls the sort of spoken vocal used on “9th and Hennepin” and driven on cello and bass, while “Reeperbanh” trips along on banjo and some fine clarinet and with a ragged vocal from Waits.

That oh-so-familiar lone piano then leads in “I'm still here”, which really sounds like something off One from the heart, a short song which then gives way the the Country-infused “Fish and bird”, remaining slow as we move towards the conclusion of the album with “Barcarolle”, and we end on the only instrumental, “Fawn”, with a distinct old Hollywood feel to it in the violin and clarinet that drive the final tune.

TRACKLISTING

1. Alice
2. Everything you can think
3. Flowers grave
4. No-one knows I'm gone
5. Kommienezuspadt
6. Poor Edward
7. Table top Joe
8. Lost in the harbour
9. We're all mad here
10. Watch her disappear
11. Reeperbahn
12. I'm still here
13. Fish and bird
14. Barcarolle
15. Fawn

Yeah, I think the main problem I have with this album (in case you didn't notice) is the slow tempo of about ninety percent of it. I'm used to Waits kicking it up a lot, throwing out odd rhythms and using strange instruments, howling like a demon one moment and whispering like a drunken angel the next, and really, nothing like that happens on this album. As I mentioned, it really is, for the most part, the musical equivalent of driving slowly along behind a funeral in a cortege, respectfully ambling along behind the hearse but in reality wishing you could floor the pedal. The pace seldom picks up, and though the songs are certainly not bad, there's a sort of miasma of self-pity and brooding hanging over them like a dark cloud.

To be perfectly honest, of the two I prefer Blood Money: at least it had some faster and more atypical songs. Hell, at this point I'd be prepared to admit I'd prefer The Black Rider! It may have been weird and inaccessible for the most part, but at least it kicked out the stays and had some fun. This is just for most of it dour, stolid and depressing. My least favourite Waits album may have just changed.

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Trollheart

A mere two years later, Waits had his next album out, one that would, for the first time really in his career, contain songs that had a political message. Mostly a man who tended to shy from either airing or writing about his beliefs --- political or religious --- if he indeed has them, Waits's songs have always been more personal, more intimate and concerned with people than policy or national events, but on this album --- perhaps affected by the events of 9/11, perhaps not --- he boldly stepped into that area which he had avoided up to this point.


Real gone --- 2004

It's a return to the use of turntables, his first use of this new "instrument" since Mule variations, which adds a very mechanical, almost alien feel to the opener, “Top of the hill”; kind of hard to hear the vocal really as it's more or less subsumed under the raucous guitar work of Marc Ribot and Casey Waits (I don't know if he's any relation) on the turntables. Strange track, very like something off maybe Bone machine or even The Black Rider. It's got a kind of swing to it but I don't really like it. It's pretty repetitive and it goes on way too long, well outstaying its welcome. Slower then and with a metal-sounding drumbeat (not heavy metal; it sounds like he's hitting metal pots or something) “Hoist that rag” opens with a wailing, Franks Wild Years-style vocal then Waits growls the chorus, the song itself a clear reference to the flag, presumably of the United States but I expect it's meant to refer to any national flag, the idea of dying for your country. There's a slow amble as we move into “Sins of my father”, and when I said before that a song at eight minutes was the longest Waits has recorded I was certainly wrong, as this clocks in at a massive ten!

There's a real feel of Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones to this, and it is a good song but again does it need to be that long? Essentially it follows the same melody all the way through, and yeah, being Waits he could probably add another twenty verses, but it has six already. Some very nice banjo and guitar, and we slide on into “Shake it” which has little other than claps and guitar, very Bone Machine. Again the vocal is hard to make out, though it probably isn't saying much. “Don't go into that barn” seems to retread the path walked over ten years previously when Waits penned “Murder in the red barn”, and has the same sort of manic, almost panicked vocal with some slick bass driving the tune. A very folky kind of jaunt in “How's it gonna end?” with a low-key vocal and then “Metropolitan guide” kicks down the walls as Waits and his band just go all crazy, mad rhythms and a scratchy vocal, a real sort of improvisational jam.

“Dead and lovely” is a mid-tempo bitter ballad of the type Waits does so well, with some good guitar and bass. It's interesting to see here Waits return to his basic style in terms of musical instruments; whereas prior to this he has used things like cello, viola, pump organ, glass harp, celeste and others on his albums, here he's sticking mostly with the guitar/bass/drums/piano/banjo combination, with a few exceptions of course, but in general it leads to a more organic feel to the record. This track is probably my favourite so far, maybe tying with “Sins of my father”, which has really grown on me. A return to the spoken vocal from “9th and Hennepin” for “Circus”, which has him bring back the chamberlin, just as I mention his using only “normal” instruments, and bells tinkle away nicely in the background, giving the piece a sort of dark fairytale feel, while “Trampled rose” is pretty acoustic with a kind of moaning vocal.

The vocal is low and the music very sparse for “Green grass”, with some whistling (don't think I've heard that since The Early Years --- not including the whistle at the end of “What's he building?”) then we're going all industrial with “Baby gonna leave me”, and so into “Make it rain”, a sort of slowed-down version of “Such a scream”. I know, I've said that before, but it's true. Listen to it. We close then on another political song, as Waits in the persona of a soldier bemoans his lot in “Day after tomorrow” --- ”They fill us full of lies everyone buys/ About what it means to be a soldier/ I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel/ About all the blood that's been spilled” --- nice laidback acoustic line carrying the song, and it ends the album well.

TRACKLISTING

1. Top of the hill
2. Hoist that rag
3. Sins of my father
4. Shake it
5. Don't go into that barn
6. How's it gonna end
7. Metropolitan glide
8. Dead and lovely
9. Circus
10. Trampled rose
11. Green grass
12. Baby gonna leave me
13. Clang boom steam
14. Make it rain
15. Day after tomorrow

It's certainly an improvement on the last two albums, and in some ways it's Waits getting back to what he does best, but I still find it hard to get excited about this album in the same way as I enthused about, say, Blue Valentine or Rain Dogs or even Bone Machine. I haven't listened to it very much, but I do remember that I tried quite hard to get into it at the time my brother gave me a tape (yeah, what of it?) of the album but found it very hard to. Could it be that Waits is losing his spark?

There are only two albums left now in his discography, one of which, his most recent, I've already reviewed, so the final one to be done here will be the massive three-disc, fifty-plus-track compilation put out by him in 2006. That one's gonna be some amount of work!

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Trollheart

Although Waits's last album was 2011's Bad as me, I have as I mentioned in the previous entry already reviewed this (you can find it here http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1117949) so that leaves only one album before we wrap this up, but it's bloody gigantic. In 2006, Waits got together all the unreleased songs, pieces of music, ideas and demos he had recorded over the years and put them all together on what would become a three-disc collection. In an attempt to not just throw everything there in no order, he arranged them into three distinct groups, which he called individually, “Brawlers”, “Brawlers” and “Bastards” and released the entire thing under that title.

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards --- 2006

Here's what Waits has to say about the collection: ”A lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner, about 60 tunes that we collected. Some are from films, some from compilations. Some is stuff that didn't fit on a record, things I recorded in the garage with kids. Oddball things, orphaned tunes. It was just a big pile of songs. It's like having a whole lot of footage for a film. It needs to be arranged in a meaningful way so it will be a balanced listening experience. You have this big box with all these things in it and it doesn't really have any meaning until it's sequenced. It took some doing. There's a thematic divide, and also pacing and all that. There are different sources to all these songs and they were written at different times. Making them work together is the trick.”

The first disc (“Brawlers”) is rooted more in his work on albums such as Heartattack and Vine, Rain dogs and Blue Valentine: stuff more rock and blues-based, while the second, “Bawlers” is the ballads with the third being experimental and spoken word material that comes under the heading of “Bastards”. All in all there are a massive fifty-two tracks, so you'll understand if I skim though them here. I'll do my best to point out and focus on the better ones, but many will be just a line or a few words.

Disc One: “Brawlers”

“Lie to me” is an untempo barebones rocker which has elements of Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years about it, pretty manic with an almost indecipherable lyric, and it's pretty guitar driven, followed by “Lowdown”, which reminds me of Bowie meets ZZ with its hard-edged rock feel. The next one is called “2:19” yet runs for over five minutes, and has some cool harmonica nad interesting percussion. Oh, I see: 2:19 is the train time. Fair enough. Reminds me a little of “Filipino box spring hog” off Mule Variations. “Fish in the jailhouse” rocks along well, kind of reminds me a little of “A sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun”, “Bottom of the world” is Country-infused acoustic with a real hobo idea to it, “Lucinda” has a much more Bone Machine mechanical feel about it with somehow a feeling of an old folk ballad, and then we get one of very few covers, as he takes on Leadbelly's “Ain't going down to the well”, followed by the traditional tune “Lord I've been changed”, with of course a heavy gospel influence.

“Puttin' on the dog” is a blues-infused harmonica-driven mid-pacer, but highlight of at least this disc, if not the whole album, is “Road to peace”, where Waits spits out his anger and frustration at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his voice sad and bitter against a swinging blues beat as he sings ”The last thing he said was/ God is great and God is good/ Then he blew them all/ To Kingdom Come.” At seven minutes plus it's a longer song than we're used to getting from Waits, and the most scathing of the US Administration as he growls ”Bush is afraid to risk his future/ In the fear of his political failures/ So he plays chess at his desk / And poses for the press/ Ten thousand miles from/ The road to peace.” One of his most telling lines in the song is ”If God is great and God is good/ Why can't he change the hearts of men?” Why, indeed?

“All the time” goes back to the grindy vocal with a hint of mechanisation in it that we hear on Bone Machine, then he hits up The Ramones for “The return of Jackie and Judy” before skipping along without a care in “Walk away” and then another cover in Phil Philips's “Sea of love”. Two tracks then complete this disc, the first being “Buzz Fledderjohn”, a slow folk acoustic (with added dog!) and the closer allowing Waits to work with his longtime friend who is mentioned a lot all through his earlier albums, Chuck E. Weiss, as “Rains on me” takes us one third of the way through this collection with a gospel-infused folk ballad.

Disc two: “Bawlers”

A short, sort of lullaby-like tune, “Bend down the branches” opens the second disc, followed by “You can never hold back spring”, like something off Closing time, with piano and trumpet driving the tune. “Long way home” has a very downbeat Country feel to it, with violin holding court on “Widow's Grove”. Everyone probably knows “Little bit of poison”, since it featured in Shrek II, and “Shiny things” slips along on a nice banjo rhythm with I think clarinet. There's a return then to the opening of One from the heart for “The world keeps turning”, slow measured piano ballad with a gentle (for Waits) vocal, a Country waltz for “Tell it to me”, even some steel guitar in there to add to the Country flavour, while “Never let go” sways along nicely on a piano line somewhat reminiscent of “Innocent when you dream” in places.

“Fannin Street” has the low-key melancholy of “Time”, with something of the Irish traditional song “From Clare to here” about it too, while I hear snatches of “Soldier's things” in the sprinkly piano that drives “Little man”, though in fairness it's a far different song, just the initial feel I get from it. Jazzy piano and smoky sax run “It's over”, one of the most downbeat ballads here, again reminding me of material from One from the heart, particularly “Old boyfriends”, “The wages of love” and “Picking up after you”. It's no surprise that “If I have to go” sounds very Franks Wild Years, as it was originally in the play but never made it onto the album, which is a pity as it's a really nice soft piano ballad. Another of Leadbelly's next in “Goodnight Irene”. I don't know the original so can't say how well he covers the song but I like this crazy, drunken rendition a lot.

An acoustic, mournful ballad, “The fall of Troy” is a fine example of Waits's flair for storytelling in a song, though it ends too abruptly, while funeral jazz mixes with slow gospel for “Take care of all my children” and a slow hobo ballad follows in the shape of “Down there by the train”. One original song remains on this disc then, sandwiched in between two covers, the first being a return to The Ramones for “Danny says”, nice slow acoustic, very simple, then the last of his own songs is “Jayne's blue wish”, and the classic “Young at heart” wraps up the second disc, rather appropriately, given that Waits never seems to show his age (he was sixty-seven at the time this was released, so seventy-six now) and it also features some of that whistling I've missed so much.

Disc three: “Bastards”

This is the one that features mostly experimental music, more in the vein of recent albums as well as some spoken-word pieces. It opens on “What keeps mankind alive”, with a very carnival Franks Wild Years/Black Rider feel, staccato accordion and organ in a kind of slow tango rhythm with some nice mandolin too. It's followed by the bleak “Children's story”, which I've focussed on already in “The Word according to Waits” section earlier, and that's followed by the weirdest version of “Heigh ho” you have ever heard! Yeah, the one from Snow White! Another spoken one is “Army ants”, where Waits informs us about the insects as if he were narrating a National Geographic special or something, then a cover of Skip Spence's “Book of Moses” before he scat-sings his way through “Bone chain”, and then tackles the traditional song “Two sisters” almost acapella with only a fiddle for accompaniment. A mix of Franks Wild Years and Heartattack and Vine for “First kiss”, touch of “Goin' out west” on “Dog door”, and then four short songs one after the other.

First up is “Redrum”, which is just ... weird. Like some mad feedback over some guitar chords and maybe organ? Short though and it leads into “Nirvana”, a spoken-word effort using the words of Bukowski against accordion and then it's Jack Kerouac who provides the lyrical content of “Home I'll never be” on solo piano, until Waits teams up with William J. Kennedy for “Poor little lamb” with a very Franks Wild Years feel. “Altar boy” looks back to Small change and songs like “Bad liver and a broken heart”, then he talks about his cars in “The Pontiac”, no instrumentation at all, then more scat singing and boombox for “Spidey's wild ride”.

That brings us almost to the end, as he wraps up with a cover of Daniel Johnston's “King Kong” before finally paying one more tribute to Kerouac on, what else, “On the road”. And that's it. A staggering fifty-two songs later, one for every week in the year, we've come to the end of this amazing compilation, and indeed to the end of the discography of Tom Waits. So far.

TRACKLISTING

Disc one: “Brawlers”

1. Lie to me
2. Lowdown
3. 2:19
4. Fish in the jailhouse
5. Bottom of the world
6. Lucinda
7. Ain't going down to the well
8. Lord I've been changed
9. Puttin' on the dog
10. Road to peace
11. All the time
12. The return of Jackie and Judy
13. Walk away
14. Sea of love
15. Buzz Fledderjohn
16. Rains on me

Disc two: “Bawlers”

1. Bend down the brances
2. You can never hold back spring
3. Long way home
4. Widow's grove
5. Little drop of poison
6. Shiny things
7. World keeps turning
8. Tell it to me
9. Never let go
10. Fannin Street
11. Little man
12. It's over
13. If I have to go
14. Goodnight Irene
15. The fall of Troy
16. Take care of all my children
17. Down there by the train
18. Danny says
19. Jayne's blue wish
20. Young at heart

Disc three: “Bastards”

1. What keeps mankind alive?
2. Children's story
3. Heigh ho
4. Army ants
5. Book of Moses
6. Bone chain
7. Two sisters
8. First kiss
9. Dog door
10. Redrum
11. Nirvana
12. Home I'll never be
13. Poor little lamb
14. Altar boy
15. The Pontiac
16. Spidey's wild ride
17. King Kong
18. On the road

It would be dishonest of me to say I loved, or even liked, every track on this album --- there are some that are just too odd for me and some I simply don't like --- but given that there are so many tracks on it I find I like more than I don't, which is really a feat in itself. Somewhat like the two Early Years compilations of the 90s, this triple boxset gives a real insight into the sort of music Waits had been writing since about 1985 (the start point given for the songs here) and now, and shows that, far from my fear that he may have taken a divergent path to the one I've been used to seeing him follow and changing his musical direction entirely, he can still write songs that make me laugh, cry and think, and as long as he can do that, I guess I'll always be a fan.

In closing, let me just say this did require, to be fair, quite an effort from me to complete. After all, we're talking about twenty-two albums here, even if I had reviewed three already, and as we saw, the further he got into his career the longer his albums got, with everything after Rain dogs clocking up at least fifteen tracks, and often a lot more. In total, excepting the ones I didn't listen to as I had already reviewed them, that's 239 tracks making up a total of 1,095 minutes or eighteen and a quarter hours. That, my friends, is a lot of Waits!

While I've been doing this, and it was my own decision to do it this way, nothing else has been posted in this journal, which means that if you're not a Waits fan you've probably steered clear, so it's time to get back to other things. But when doing a discography in this much detail, I think it's important to clear the decks and not allow other things to intrude, at least in this journal. If I strung it out over my usual period of time, chances are I would not get to do the Genesis and Marillion ones before the end of the year (who cheered?) as is my intention. But it won't be for a few months yet that I get to the first of those two.

Right now, I'm going to be posting other stuff, probably not that many album reviews. I'm a bit burned out to be honest, and I'll shortly be beginning research for Metal Month III, so will be concentating a lot on that. At any rate, if you read the reviews I hope you enjoyed them, if not, well it's over now and we're moving on. For myself I'm glad I did this: it was a pretty huge undertaking but then I'm a pretty huge fan of Waits, and to review even the albums of his I didn't and don't like was something of an experience for me. At least nobody can say I wasn't thorough!

So, time to pack the banjo away, collect those chair legs and close down the piano lid, and head off in search of a bar that's still open. Reviewing a discography is thirsty work, you know!

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innerspaceboy

Thank you so much for your dedication to this discographic review. I'm a Waits fan with a near-complete collection of his original pressing LPs, but I've not given each individual disc the undivided attention they deserve. Your album-by-album guide will be a welcome accompaniment to my exploration for the weeks ahead.

Thanks!

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Trollheart

Ì thought you might enjoy it as a Waits fan. Glad you did. It certainly took a lot of time and work but I think it was worth it in the end; even gave me in some cases an appreciation for albums I had not been impressed with previously.

And welcome to my journal!
TH

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Trollheart

They're a band who get a lot of hate from a lot of different quarters, possibly because people keep putting them into what I feel is the wrong boxes. I mean, a heavy metal band? Surely not. A pop band? No. I think the only proper label that fits Journey is AOR, and in that sphere they have flourished and grown to be one of the biggest stadium-fillers in the US, perhaps the world, over a career spanning forty years, but really only beginning in earnest in 1981, with the release of this, their most successful and best known album.

Escape --- Journey --- 1981 (Columbia)
With the arrival of keyboard whizz Jonathan Cain from The Babys (which had also featured John Waite, a relationship they would renew when they and most of the rest of Journey would form Bad English in 1987), the scene was set for a cosmic shift in the fortunes, and indeed the music of Journey. While they had had six albums previous to this, none had really done much, although Departure and the two previous albums had made some inroads on the charts and given them some hit singles. However Journey, generally, were still a well-kept secret for the most part. They had their fans, sure, every band does, and they had their hits, but their albums only began shifting massive units after this behemoth hit.

Straight into songwriting went Cain, with Neal Schon and Steve Perry, and together they crafted not one but four huge hit singles, two of which were to go on to become total rock classics, and the stuff of many a drunken karaoke night. The album became their breakthrough in a commercial sense, putting them firmly on the map. People like Unknown Soldier will probably argue that Journey were already well on the map, and they were, but if you like, this album put them in the sat-nav rather than just being a place on a printed map. In other words, though Journey had had hits in the US before, it was only after this album that people all over the world suddenly began to know who they were. And so the hate began.

But I love Journey, though many of their albums I feel struggle by on some incredible tracks paired with some pretty poor ones, of which perhaps more later. If any of their albums can be said to be a classic though, it has to be this, and it would lead to other gems like Frontiers and Raised on radio, as what was almost the perfect AOR band lineup took shape. What I said above does not however holds true for this album: there's hardly a sub-par track to be found among these nine perfectly-crafted songs? And what else would you expect of an album that was voted as number one AOR album ever by the readers of that venerated metal mag, “Kerrang!” indeed? Not bad.

If there's anyone alive who does not know “Don't stop believin'” then I have yet to meet them. If only through the latter efforts of “Glee”, the song has become a standard even if some people don't realise who wrote it. With a haunting piano line that immediately lays down Cain's marker as the new guy taking control it features a bluesy vocal from Steve Perry, arguably the best ever Journey vocalist, before Neal Schon's searing guitar line bursts through and the song takes off. “Don't stop believin'” is somewhat of an oddity in Journey's catalogue, as it really doesn't feature a chorus, or indeed the title, until the last minute or so, with the verses all played one after another. The end result is a buildup that just makes you want to punch the air in exhilaration when Schon's guitar solo peters out and ushers in Perry's hopeful, defiant vocal ”Don't stop believin'/ Hold on to the feelin'!" Classic, and a a great way to open the album.

A loud, raucous staggered guitar riff takes in “Stone in love”, Steve Smith's thumping percussion merging with Ross Valory's powerful basslines and Perry's vocal coming in with a raunchy, sleazy delivery quite different to the song he's just finished. Great vocal harmonies, another hallmark of Journey's music, and very much more guitar-driven this time, as Schon gets given his head, Cain tailing back into the background and waiting for a chance to shine, as he does in the buildup to the instrumental section, where he puts a Yes-like spin on the music. He leads in the second hit single, “Who's crying now?” as his soon-to-be familiar piano notes lay down the background for one of rock's most powerful ballads. Again, there may be few among you who don't know this song. A passionate vocal from Steve Perry and just the right amount of punch from Smith takes the song along in a perfect path. Those vocal harmonies are back and so very sweet, Valory putting a superb little twist on the bassline that forever marks the song with his unique signature.

This is only one of two tracks on which Perry and Cain collaborate without Schon, but the sublime breakaway guitar solo that ends the song leaves you in no doubt that he has more than contributed to it. Journey would get a lot of stick --- still do --- for the amount of “soppy rock ballads” they write, and indeed this album has three, but if you thought they were not a rock band then “Keep on runnin'” should show you the error of your ways. Not the best of Journey songs certainly, but it has a real punch and drive about it, and Schon goes particularly crazy on it. Perry sings his heart out and again Cain takes something of a backseat to the guitar man, but as ever he's only waiting, gathering his strength and his energy for the lush ballad to come. “Still they ride” begins on soft acoustic guitar and will always be recognised for Perry's first two words, ”Jessie rides” before Cain builds the soundscape with sonorous organ and powerful piano, Perry wringing every ounce of emotion out of the song. It's devoid of the usual vocal harmonies this time, but rather than suffer for it their absence seems to make it better, almost as if they would be superfluous here.

A soaring guitar solo screams off Schon's fretboard, climbing to the Heavens as the song reaches its climax, Cain adding piano flourishes and synth flair as they take the track home and into the title track. A big snarly guitar with piano glissando and “Escape” gets underway, rocking along nicely with a bouncy beat, Cain emulating Jerry Lee Lewis almost on the ivories. He also must have given Geoff Downes some ideas and borrowed from Tony Banks, as I hear a sequence that would crop up on Asia's first album and had been used by Genesis earlier. A real stadium rock anthem, “Escape” brings the harmonies back in and they work brilliantly. There's even a shot of soul and gospel in the vocals. “Lay it down” is down-and-dirty straightahead rock and roll, not a wimp in sight as Schon cuts loose and Perry gives it all he's got. I'm not sure whether the presence of ex-Lynyrd Skynyrd soundman Kevin Elson, who co-produces, has anything to do with this but it definitely has a certain southern rock feel about it.

And things keep rockin' for “Dead or alive”, this time driven on the manic rock piano of Mr. Cain, a song just to have fun to really. A rapid-fire vocal delivery from Steve Perry as he grins ”Wanted dead or alive” five years before Jon Bon Jovi took that to the charts and reinvented cowboy rock for a while. Powerful work on the frets from Schon, a great almost metalworthy solo (shut up) and we're into the longest track on the album. “Mother, father” runs for just a second short of five and a half minutes, and almost closes the album with a classical piano intro by Cain, a strong and determined vocal from Perry which quickly changes what seemed to be a ballad into a dramatic, yearning power anthem and would have made a great closer by itself. This is the only track on the album on which Matt Schon lends a hand to the songwriting team. I don't know if he is Neal's brother, but I assume he's related in some ways. This is probably the closest Journey come to returning, if briefly, to their earlier progressive rock roots, and it really gets you in the heart, especially with the harmonies.

But it's not quite over. The final track is not only another single, but their biggest hit in the US, stopping just one short of the number one slot. This confounds me a little. I love “Open arms”, and it's an amazing song, but I can't believe people liked it better than “Don't stop believin'” or “Who's crying now.” It's a showcase for Jonathan Cain as he drives the closing ballad on gentle piano, Perry's voice soft and wistful initially until the chorus when he punches it up into an emotional crescendo, and you can almost hear the passion leaking from his pores as he croons ”Now I come to you/ With open arms/ Nothing to hide/ Believe what I say.” Which kind of brings everything full circle in terms of lyrical content. I don't see an orchestra credited, but if not then Cain certainly makes his synth sound like one, and for once Schon lets him do his thing and stays somewhat in the shadows, allowing the song to bring a gentle and triumphant close to a true classic of AOR.

TRACKLISTING

1. Don't stop believin'
2. Stone in love
3. Who's crying now
4. Keep on runnin'
5. Still they ride
6. Escape
7. Lay it down
8. Dead or alive
9. Mother, father
10. Open arms

Listen, all you guys and girls who hate and laugh at Journey don't bother me. I listen to music because I like it, not because I'm told to or I think I should or someone says I should, and equally, I refuse to put down a band just because they're not popular or deemed worthy. This album is a true classic, and would spawn some amazing followups, cementing the name of Journey not only in rock's annals but also in the derision and sneers of those who judged them by their hit singles and probably never bothered to listen to a full album. Some people just like to feel superior --- as Jimbo Jones once put it in The Simpsons: “It makes me feel like a big man!” And that's fine. You go ahead: haters are gonna hate. But you won't turn me off Journey.

And if you listened to this album maybe your opinion would change. But even if not, nothing stops Escape being a classic of eighties AOR, and the yardstick that so many new and young bands still aspire to, over thirty years since it was released. If songs like “Don't stop believin'” can still inspire artistes to cover them and make them famous and popular all over again, then that has to say something about the album's longevity, doesn't it? You might prefer Husker Du, or Kendrick Lamaar, or even The Flatfish from Outer Space, who knows? And if you do, fair play to you and I hope you enjoy them.

This is what I enjoy. Classic, timeless rock that speaks down the years and still seems as fresh today as when it was penned back at the start of the 1980s. And I will go on enjoying it. And Journey will go on releasing great albums. And you will continue to hate them. Probably. And the world will continue to turn. But with four hit singles and over twelve million units sold, and nary a bad track on it, there's no escaping (sorry) the fact that this is, and always will be, a great example of a classic AOR album.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

Are you going to review the soundtrack for Big Time, TH? Or the work Waits did with Gavin Bryars?

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Trollheart

Shoot! No, I'm finished my Waits discog now. "Big Time" was a movie? Missed that one. Ah, no: a live album. No. I said I was doing only studio. I broke that convention for Nighthawks at the diner but only because that was such a unique album.

Gavin Bryars I know nothing of, but if I went into collabs I'd have been here a whole lot longer, and you really want to read my Genesis and Marillion discogs, don't you?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

Big Time was a film documenting one of Waits' live tours. It's really something else and my favourite album from him, so you might hate it come to think of it . It's on Netflix and it's a must for any Waits fan. The Bryars collaboration is a minimalist piece with Waits singing the same line over and over over strings. It doesn't sound up your alley at all but it's really very beautiful. That and the original are phenomenal and you should definitely hear both (the original is on the album "Sinking of the Titanic") before the moon crashes into the earth and we all die.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

innerspaceboy

I'll cast another vote for Big Time. The mixes on the LP differ from that of the VHS (or of the bootleg DVD) but both are absolutely essential.

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