This 1981 album is a milestone in rock music. It was not only groundbreaking for the melodic rock / AOR style! The ninefold !!! excellent platinum album has a total of four single releases that had three top 10 successes in their country and even had a No. 1 with “Open Arms”. The biggest hit and evergreen “Don’t Stop Believin” is the century song for the band. Great interplay of the band, wonderful harmony vocals, and a world-class vocal performance by Steve Perry!
On July 31, 1981, Journey released their seventh studio album “Escape”, a name which was stylized on the cover as E5C4P3. This album peaked at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, and contains four songs that entered the Billboard Hot 200, “Don’t Stop Believin”, “Who’s Crying Now”, “Still They Ride” and “Open Arms”. It sold over 20 copies worldwide and was certified 9x platinum by the RIAA, making it the band’s most successful album.
This project was the first album where they worked with their new keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who replaced the founding keyboardist Gregg Rolie after he left the group a year earlier.
Undoubtedly a great formation, with an incredible compositional talent, based fundamentally on exquisite melodies and bombastic choruses, the unmistakable guitar of Neal Schon, the galactic keys of Jonathan Cain, the drums of the outstanding Steve Smith, the bass of the sober Ross Valory And of course, the wonderful voice of Steve Perry, a whole phenomenon that transports you to another dimension with his sensitivity, his sensational tone and his way of interpreting.
The criticism received by the album was diverse, for their part, some described it as an album that contains lyrics that rekindle the innocence of youth romance and the rebellion of growing up. On the other hand, on the other hand, it received criticism such that the music was easily reproducible by any session musician. However, and despite this, several of the songs left by this album have gone down in history and are still heard.
It’s hard to overlook that this album was a platinum record nine times, many people do not trust this data, but it certainly reflects that the work has an impressive pull and popularity. In this case, there is no debate, it is a great album and not only because of the accessibility of its sound but also because of the talent displayed throughout its ten songs, several of them magical and of supernatural quality.
One of the hits of this album “Open Arms“, written by Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain, two of the band members. It is a ballad that describes the situation of those who argue with their partners and who try to reconcile by starting again with “open arms.” American singer Mariah Carey and Korean Younha performed two versions of the song.
Apart from “Open Arms”, in “Escape” we also enjoy the ballad “Still They Ride” where Perry gives you chills with his amazing voice.
While “Don’t Stop Believin” is considered as one of its leading songs and was in the top 10 positions of the Billboard hot 100. In 2008 it became the most downloaded song on the iTunes platform, and if its sales are combined Both digital and physical has sold more than 6.5 million copies in the US alone, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.
Now that Perry is no longer in the combo, it’s not hard to welcome and say that he has been the best singer of the group, after listening to Fleischman, Steve Augeri or the current Arnel Pineda (with a tone quite similar to Perry, the curious history of this Filipino who was dedicated with his group to make versions of Journey, his favorite group, until he was recruited with them, his dream come true). Perry is undoubtedly one of the best singers of melodic rock. Not only for his voice but also for how he embroidered it live.
You can listen to the full album below: