DREAM, AFTER DREAM (OST)

Dream After Dream is an oddity in the Journey catalog in that it is a soundtrack for a Japanese movie comprised of both songs and score. It is also a fairly progressive album, which is surprising, since it follows the more mainstream rock found on the previous albums Infinity and Evolution.

1. Destiny (8:55) Destiny is one of the few vocal tracks on the album. It is also the album's longest track, clocking in at 8:55. The songs starts slow with a dreamy intro. Neal Schon plays a fluid guitar part over Greg Rolie's synthesizer. There are also some nice bits of orchestration. Perry begins a very simple vocal almost 2 minutes in with some nicely layered harmonies in the verses. Unfortunately, his vocals are crispy (maybe on purpose?), as if there was too much gain on the mic. The vocal section gives way to another instrumetnal section in which the band kicks into a more standard rock feel, reminiscent of the rock songs from their Departure album. This section ends with a burst of synthesizer, and the band mellows again. Schon plays a tasteful solo over a reprise of the intro.

2. Snow Theme (3:22) This track begins with some beautiful orchestration (with violin as the featured instrument) and some restrained piano playing by Rolie. This is just a really pretty piece of sountrack music. Reminds me of the Braveheart soundtrack a little (minus the pipes of course).

3. Sand Castles (4:42) Sand Castles is another vocal track. There is some nice fusion drumming by Steve Smith on this track. Sounds like Rolie is playing electric piano here. The orchestration from Snow Theme is carried over. Perry's vocals are a little more adventurous on this track. At the 2:09 mark we get a rarity for Journey, a saxophone solo. Once again, the band pays homage to Floyd (there are a couple of songs on their first three albums that have Floyd undertones). I can't help but feel that with lyric tweaks, this song could fit nicely on a James Bond soundtrack.

4. A Few Coins (:41) Incidental music.

5. Moon Theme 4:36) Moon Theme is a nice instrumental track. Neal Schon plays a nice, melodic guitar line under an orchestrated intro. At 1:07, drums kick into the track, and Schon's guitar jumps to the forefront. He plays a cool lead, and then we're back into the more mellow intro melody, then we repeat the drums and lead again.

6. When the Love Has Gone (4:02) This is a cool instrumental that features Schon. When The Love Has Gone would fit on Schon's solo albums Late Night or Beyond The Thunder. It's a very straight-forward slow burn which lets Schon play some soulful leads.

7. Festival Dance (:59) 8. The Rape (2:13) Both tracks 7 and 8 are more incidental music.

9. Little Girl (5:46) If Journey had continued to write and record songs like Little Girl in the 80's, critics would have been far more forgiving. From Perry's vocals to the orchestration to Neal Schon's guitar parts, this song has so much power. There is monster solo from Neal Schon, probably in the top three solos by Schon on a Journey album.

The song starts off with Schon playing a counter melody on acoustic guitar to the dominate symphonic melody. The orchestra fades, and his melody becomes the dominate and underlies Perry's vocal. The song seques into a more mainstream pop song at this point. Perry delivers a very powerful vocal here, akin to his more impressive moments on Infinity. There is some nice layered harmonies in the chorus (very Roy Thomas Baker, the producer the band used on their previous couple of albums). What makes the song truly special to me is Schon's solo which begins at 3:00. The solo lasts almost 1:20, and Perry comes back in to repeat the chorus. Schon runs through a range of emotion during the solo, and it is very epic, dare I say majestic. There is an outro harmonica solo by Gregg Rolie that almost spoils the song, but it is, thankfully short.

I really like listening to this album. It is very bittersweet, because it shows what Journey could have been in the 80's, if Rolie would have stayed and if they would have had the stones to flex their artistic muscles a bit. Instead, it serves as the last gasp of a potentially great progressive band. It definitely deserves a place beside the first three Journey albums in any progressive music listener's collection and maybe even ahead of Look Into The Future.

Dream after nightmare

This album is certainly an anomaly in the discography of Journey. Being released in 1980, in between the Departure and Escape albums, Dream After Dream is radically different from those albums and from anything else the band has made before or since. This one falls more in the Symphonic Prog category. Really! Not only the large white bird on the front cover remind of Camel's Snowgoose album, but also the feel of the music in parts.

When many people think about Journey they think primarily of albums like Infinity, Departure and Escape which leads them to think that Journey's output is rather homogenous and formulaic, but when one considers albums like the present one as well as the early Jazz-Rock/Fusion albums, the discography of the band suddenly appears very diverse.

Dream After Dream is an obscure soundtrack album made for a Japanese film of the same name. Being a soundtrack for a film, there naturally are some grey areas, but overall this is a surprisingly pleasant listen. The best track by far is the almost nine minute opener Destiny which moves from soft symphonic sweeps to hard rocking riffs. What follows is a rather agreeable string of vocal tunes and instrumental interludes. Only the closing track Little Girl is recognisably Journey. Indeed, in the other songs only the distinctive voice of Steve Perry reminds us of what band this is. As I said, several of the tracks are instrumental and are equally far removed in style from the AOR of Escape as they are from the Jazz-Rock of the band's debut.

While mostly interesting as a curiosity, Dream After Dream is worthy of a few listens in its own right and it will certainly please the Prog community more than most other albums by this band.

A real stylistic departure this. Recorded and released in 1980, 'Dream, After Dream' was not a studio album but the soundtrack to the obscure Japanese movie 'Yume, Yume, No ato' and one of the least well-known productions of Journey's otherwise stellar career. Still a year-or-so from releasing their 1981 smash-hit 'Escape', 'Dream, After Dream' was seemingly designed for two reasons: to strengthen the group's ties with their ever-growing Japanese audience who had been emphatically supporting the group since their mid- seventies, pre-Steve Perry days; and to let the musicians branch out into more musically challenging areas without damaging their commercial street cred back home. As an album, 'Dream, After Dream' very much harks back to the style of the American outfits early progressive phase, and has more in common with albums such as 1975's self-titled debut and 'Look Into The Future' than it does with the likes of breakthrough hit 'Infinity' and predecessor 'Evolution'. Of course, it's still recognisably a soundtrack piece, with a strong orchestral flavour backing Gregg Rolie's dreamy keyboards and the unusually understated guitars of Neal Schon. With only three tracks - 'Destiny', 'Sandcastles' and 'Little Girl' - featuring vocals, there isn't too much for Steve Perry to do, so this is a much more instrumentally ambitious affair, for the most eschewing the slick AOR style that had garnered the group such commercial success during the tail-end of the 1970s and showing yet again that there is so much more to Journey than sentimental balladry and streamlined pop-rock. There's also a whimsical, almost melancholic edge to much of 'Dream, After Dream', a mood heightened by the fact that it would prove to be the final album to feature founding member Rolie, a multi-talented player whose compositional abilities always favoured a more experimental approach. Fortunately, it's a worthy swansong to his time in the group, and in technical terms this is undoubtedly the most proficient and adventurous Journey release since 1977's underrated 'Next', giving a brief look at how the globe-conquering group may have turned out if Steve Perry hadn't joined the fold two years earlier. For those fans who have always preferred the trio of progressive-flavoured albums from Journey's early days, this should prove an exciting treat. 'Dream, After Dream' is an atmospheric, almost elegiac album featuring a richer, fuller sound that focuses much more on complex instrumentation and mood than it does on crafting simple pop songs. Younger Journey fans may find it all a bit ponderous at times - the pace on the whole is generally rather slow bar the occasional guitar-or- keyboard solo from Schon or Rolie - yet this album wasn't designed for the groups mainstream fanbase. Harking back to their excellent early albums, this is the sound of Journey in progressive rock mode and a reminder of their innate musical talents. Highly recommended.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

An album that most Journey fans are not even aware of its existence, this a hard to find CD with the soundtrack of an obscure Japanese film Yume, Yume, No Ato. It was released in 1980. just before the band reached their mega hit status with Escape. In fact this is the last album by the group featuring original member Gregg Rollie. And the music in here has very few similarities from anything they have done, before or since. There are just three songs with vocals: Destiny, Sandcastles and Little Girl. Those are the ones you´ll find more familiar due to the very unique voice of Steve Perry, but even then, they are way different, featuring a more relaxing, laid back feel, with long instrumental breaks, lots of orchestration and even elements of world and japanese music thrown in for good measure. A "real" soundtrack album that seems to be made specially to please their enormous fan base in Japan.

There are few really remarkable parts, most of then featuring Neil Schons beautiful guitar lines and solos, backed by Rollies Fender Rhodes electric piano, with a definitely jazzy feel (even a sax solo is present on Sandcastles). It clearly shows the band could deliver much more than "just" the hard rock/fusion of their early stuff or the AOR/pop of the late 70s onward. Although I do not find it particularly appealing to me, it is nevertheless proof that they were better musicians and songwriters than most people think. And one can only wonder where would they have gone if they decided to take such departure further. Anyway, the album is still a valid statement of Jorneys versatility and talent. And if you like the band (and soundtracks), you should listen to Dream After Dream just to realise how different they could be without losing any of the melodic ear nor their skill in delivering great tunes.

An interesting surprise!