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by Barb Stearns
The thing I remember first is the look of sheer nervousness on the clerks' faces at Tower Records.
They always begin selling new releases at midnight the day before 'official' release, as I'm sure you know, and there were roughly 15 of us long-timers hanging around the counter at eight minutes till. Staring. Drooling. Submitting the weary clerks to the same pressure that your cat does when it sees you have tuna.
"Um...eight more minutes," our Friendly Tower Employee said.
We collectively glared.
One does not toy with Journey fans, especially Journey fans who have not heard anything new from their favorite band in ten years. Sensing this, the wise folks at Tower opened the boxes and began selling Trial By Fire at eight minutes till.
Chaos erupted in the rainy parking lot shortly thereafter. The masses rejoiced. Noise ordinances were violated. I'm gratified Tower didn't call 911 on us. Then again, the local police know about me and probably would have been hesitant to get involved.
I could reiterate the same tired old stats about this album that all the entertainment mags did--produced by Kevin "Spank" Shirley (Caveman, we love you); recorded in four months after ten years of hiatus, reviving a former incarnation of Columbia Record's best-selling band; released 10/22/96. But I'm no entertainment mag and we might as well get to the rest of the good stuff.
Lesser bands would have collapsed under the weight of this kind of musical legacy, but Journey is an entity that defies expectation. No two albums are alike, yet they're uniquely recognizable. With Ross and Smitty back in the fold and a tried-and-true songwriting technique back in play, Trial By Fire is like shaking hands with a dear friend you'd thought you'd never see again. Hell, it's like bear-hugging them and thanking God you lived to see the day. There's a flavor of the previous three studio albums here, present in the songwriting and musicianship if not the production.
The production itself is a departure for the band (oh please! Did you think you'd "escape" without hearing at least one pun? Really.); Kevin made the guys actually practice each tune, get it nailed down to tour-level performance prior to recording. Much grumbling was heard. This is a band accustomed to recording an idea while it's still minty-fresh, raw, and maybe not even fully formed. But it worked. Minty-freshness was still retained. Fade-outs were discouraged. Effects were used for amusement. This isn't your older sister's Journey.
Trial is a collection of material written by people who experienced and survived a myriad of things separately after Raised On Radio, and it shows. There are shadows of unfinished business, here. The title track illustrates the mood of this album for me: "In my doubt I can't believe/like a wave tossed where the wind blows/tears of faith temper my soul..." Wistful, occasionally dark, slightly rueful at times, it also swings to unrestrained joy. Obvious (and appreciated) fan anthem "Can't Tame The Lion" and hidden track "Baby I'm Leaving You" remind us to drop the nonsense and dance. And the old power is still here; mid-tempo rocker "Message Of Love" reminds us what power chords are for. I'm not going to pull my punches and fail to mention that it's suspiciously like "Separate Ways" in the way it's structured. But I will say if you can't borrow from yourself, who can you borrow from?
And it never hurts to borrow what works. "Easy To Fall" is a modern, matured and tempered version of "Lights" with a more complex chord structure; this is the quintessential Journey sound, and the entire album reflects it. Start with a majestic base, add two parts emotion, sprinkle whoop-ass to taste. "If He Should Break Your Heart" stays in that vein. Even the Japanese bonus track, "I Can See It In Your Eyes," is the 90's version of "Anyway You Want It". It's fun. We'll go back for seconds.
Maybe there's an occasional garnish of experimentation, too. The sweeping "One More", which Jonathan Cain says alludes to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, took me several listens to get used to. I'll admit that my first impression was, "what the hell is this?", but it grew on me to the point where I can call it a favorite. "Castles Burning" is another mid-tempo rocker, and initially I felt it ran the risk of being maudlin the way Departure's "Homemade Love" did. But I love this tune for it's gritty peculiarities the way I love "Homemade" for its risqué' charm. And who can resist listening to Steve Perry scream?
Speaking of The Voice, there were any number of susurrations about the state of said voice on this album. Can't hit the high notes anymore. Doesn't have the range. Yadda yadda yadda. For those staunchly accustomed to the smooth-as-glass higher pitched Perry of years past, I can understand the concern. The man who could blow up small animals while dabbling with a high C is probably gone. But this voice, with all its additional timbre and occasional huskiness, is more alluring to my ears for some reason. It's a warmer and more mature Perry, the natural result of time. Oxygen was made for this purpose, and is put to excellent use here.
There were also a few suggestions that Schon's guitar was restrained on this album, confined by ballads. If there's a thing out there that can restrain Neal, I'd like to see it. The guy plays guitar like he's been genetically spliced to the thing. If he felt smothered, he did a crummy job of showing it. There's all the trademark pyrotechnics he's famous for, occasionally scaled down to sparse statements in all the right places. Jon probably had to replace a couple of doors and windows at Wildhorse Studios and probably four of the seventeen coats of speedboat paint that are on The Whale, too, by the time Neal was done with his part of "Castles Burning". Try explaining that to your insurance company.
Jon did nothing by halves on this album, either; he and Neal played off each other like they usually do, spotting each other and interweaving elements into something strong enough to stand the test of time. There's nothing dusty or hesitant in Jon's approach to this album. The man is super glue in a lick-em-and-stick-em world and keeps Journey coloring inside the lines when it's supposed to. He knows when to haul off with the entire show without being heavy handed ("When You Love A Woman"). He also knows when to use subtlety to deliver the most impact: the piano work on "Don't Be Down On Me Baby" is proof that simple is sometimes best, and the key it's written in flirts with Beethoven-ness. Yes, I can make words up if I want to. It's my review.
Smitty did actual research for this one; when he realized he was coming back to Journey, he set about researching the musical roots of each bandmate as well as his own instrument, readdressing the foundation. As always, he gets right to business, and the result is clean without polishing the feathers right off. He did a lot of studio work in the interim between Journey albums, and it's broadened his repertoire. He could safely have rested on his laurels for this album, but he chose to approach it, and his own playing style, from absolute scratch.
"One More" contains the coolest bass line I've heard from any band in the last decade and a half. Period. Maybe Ross Valory has done cooler work in his time, but someone let him loose here, and he ran with the ball. Can we have a solo album from this man, please? The fact that Perry, Cain and Schon didn't sketch the majority of the tunes using drum programming or a synth bass, and left things open for Smith and Valory to do their thing, contributed to the cohesiveness of the percussion on this album.
Don't start about the cover art. It was different. That's all I'm saying.
I loved this album because of its signatures, because it was reminiscent of roads already taken, because they picked up almost where Frontiers left off. There are spots where they came a little too close to rehashing, but a lot of fans wanted the comfort of a coming-home feel, and this definitely hit home. There's undeniable chemistry in this lineup, which doesn't make any other lineup better or worse; there was simply something consistently right about this one. I'm a sentimental, romantic dork, too, which probably adds a lot to everything I've said here. I whined with everyone else that it was ballad-heavy, but after giving the album time to settle into the background of the rest of Journey's catalogue on my shelf, I see the progression. Sixteen songs instead of the regular ten is hefty for an album of the 90's, and when you consider that there were thirty tunes penned for the album, chances are it was an even mix.
Copyright © 1994-2006 Dan Stacy, Journey Digest, JourneyDigest.com
No portion of this article may be reprinted without express written permission from the author and JourneyDigest.com