Stephen
Thirteen may be considered a bad luck number for some people but definitely not for Journey. After a shocking recruitment of Filipino singer, Arnel Pineda, over YouTube, Journey went on for platinum status with their 13th album in 2009. What made this record so successful is because of the formula applied here is basically the same formula they used when they conquered America with their 15 platinums record of Escape and Frontiers, aside from the similarity of the new singer's pipe with the legendary Steve Perry's tenor voice, not only by his characteristic, but also with his whole-hearted passionate delivery.
I was in awe when I first heard "Never Walk Away" and "After All These Years" on their MySpace page couple months prior to the official release of the album, both of these songs are a golden successor to the classic champions of "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Faithfully". "Where Did I Lose Your Love", "Change For The Better", and "What It Takes Two Win" are a great midtempo rockers, "What I Needed" is a grower where I found not interesting at the first listen. "Faith In The Heartland" is an excellent remake from their prior album, "Generations".
Couple songs that I don't like is the failure transformation of "Lights" in "Like A Sunshower" and nice-chorus-but-boring-verse of "Wildest Dreams". The instrumental closing track is also avoidable, but "Turn Down The World Tonight" is just hauntingly beautiful, a melancholic miraculous climax of the whole album.
An excellent choice of singer and 'Revelation' marks the new era of Journey. I'm pretty sure the band will slowly climbing up the ladder of success at least for the next 4-5 albums.