EVOLUTION

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Fifth album of Journey from 1979. First album with a new drummer - Steve Smith who replaced the well known Aysley Dunbar. The sound on this album is almost the same with the predecesor but miles away from the first records Journey released. First - Evolution is maybe the most comercial album they ever done in the '70's and second is more hard rock with AOR elements than previouses albums who were more jazz rock. As a whole is not a bad album, but lacks in good ideas. So the best pieces are:Too Late, the smooth Sweet And Simple and Daydream, the rest are ok but not very exciteing. I will give 3 stars to Evolution, not something special, maybe the most unenjoyble album with Perry.

Eeeehhmmmm!!!!!...... maybe one of the most inaptly titled album ever (unless adding a "D" in front, but a Ohio quartet thought of it first). So with the sacking of Ainsley (he'll find refuge in a real rock band Jefferson Starship), the word business was the first and only thought. Even if Schon's guitar often shines in its histrionics, it's really Perry's property as he signs every track but one, simply choosing who he wants to write with, and very often preferring Schon over Rollie. With yet another ugly (ridiculous) TransAm hood artwork, Evolution has only two tracks above 4 minutes, which goes to tell you how sad this can go. Replacement Smith is apt, and fills the drum stool, which suffered a size- shrinking as part of the business re-organization.

Again loaded with three sure-fire hits, De-Evolution hit the charts with a vengeance it didn't need, since the album before had hit it big, and hit our eardrums with a meanness and with an aggressiveness that we didn't need, causing much nausea and many puking. Indeed Steve Pukerry's voice caused a lot of kids to hate this kind of rock, and probably helped pave the way to NWOBHMB into their hearts. Past the Majestic intro, which might be seen as passage of rite between the early Journey (first 30 seconds) into the Perry-era Journey (the remaining 45 seconds), the album jumps into the well-known Too Late, then the atrocious nah-nah-nah-naaaaah-nah Lovin' Touchin', Squeezin', Pukin' hit-singles, before attacking a few fillers (how much more of a filler than "city of the angels"?) or second rate stuff - When You're Alone, Loving You Is So Easy, Sweet And Simple are complete misses AND fillers. However, when Gregg Rollie writes without Perry, it is neither good, nor does he sing well (his voice is simply shot compared to his Santana days) and even in Just The Same Way, Perry actually saves the tracks from being almost laughable. Grandeur et decadence. Recall, Day Dream are just boring fillers, while the closing Lady Luck might just be the only track worthy of attention, being the only one that displays the energy of the first album without passing through Schon's testosteroned guitars, but rather through the drumming (wouldn't be surprised if this was a Dunbar left-over).

Again an album that's best avoided, partly because of the corporate rock business side (they don't need it anymore), but mostly to save your shelves from ridicule of disp^laying your bad tastes, should you once have bought this (errare humanum est) and not getting rid of it (persevere idioticum est). Stand warned and corrected!!!

There is nothing nice to say about this album by Journey which, even in a library of oft mediocre FM styrofoam, screams artistic emptiness from start to pointless conclusion. While most Journey albums let the listener enjoy a highlight or two hidden amongst filler, "Evolution" is all filler, and even the songs that are slightly less so are still bad. The production is awful, Steve Perry's voice is shrill, and the songs are an obvious attempt to copy their winning forumla from "Infinity". I hardly need to warn the majority of readers to stay away from this one, but anyone dipping into their past with the need for some FM slumming should avoid this one like the plague!

Songwriting: 1 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 1 Style/Emotion/Replay: 1

The evolution into bigger chart success...at least in my eyes. I've already reviewed a greatest hits thing from them, and I feel that while I hated that thing with a passion, maybe I wasn't giving Journey enough credit. So, in my uncle's vinyl collection, there rested a proper studio outing from them, and I decided to borrow it and listen to it.

So, the big question you ask, ''Is my opinion of Journey any different?'' Not really. EVOLUTION still sounds like poppy, pukeable AOR stuff that I can't stand for more than two minutes at a time. ''Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin'' is the big hit from the album (apparently, it was the only song from EVOLUTION that made it to the greatest hits thing I reviewed), and I feel it's one of the most cringeworthy songs I ever heard. It's sickly, slow-dance like feel makes me want to vomit in every conceivable direction.

I've grown more irritated towards Steve Perry's voice the more I listen to it. I don't know why I cannot stand it, but I can't and it deters my liking of the album. Gregg Rolie gets his chance to sing lead on ''Just the Same Way'', but for my ears, it's not that welcome of a change. Only the last two tracks have any sort of appeal to me.

Unless you have a thing for schmaltzy AOR pop, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

This is unfortunately the logical follow-up to the dreadful "Infinity".

Commercial success was on the rendezvous but musically if you're not in for unbearable AOR or funky oriented rock songs, I'm afraid that to listen to this "Evolution" will be a real pain. To say the least.

Some fine guitar from the great Neal could lead to a better appreciation, but this is dumped into an ocean of miserable mood and tracks: "Do You Recall" for instance but you can really take any one of the tracks featured. Most of them are truly best avoided.

It is a shame that this band (although not prog at all) could fall into such miserable territories (musically, since commercially that will hit high levels). The Perry guy is out of place. But that's only my opinion. He screwed it all up in terms of music. His screams during "Lady Luck" are just weak, weak, weak.

It is difficult to determine which of "Infinity" or "Evolution" is the worse.

"Are We Not Men?" We Are DEVO. One star.

They haven't evolved one bit!

Released between 1978's very good Infinity album and 1980's respectable Departure, Journey's Evolution is a really poor effort. The high standards set by Infinity are never matched on Evolution even if the one and a half minute instrumental track that opens this album is quite promising. Sadly, we are quickly let down by the less than average Too Late. Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' is possibly the cheesiest song title ever and the song itself is quite bad too. It is funny that this song was actually covered by Dream Theater on their Change Of Seasons mini album.

'Evolution' is an extremely deceptive album title since the band have not evolved one bit since their last album. On the contrary, Evolution follows very closely in the foot steppes of Infinity and pretty much follows the formula established by that previous album. However, this would perhaps not have been a major problem had the quality of the songs been up to par with, or even close to, those of Infinity. But they are sadly not and Evolution comes across as a very bleak copy of Infinity. There are certainly no classics present, like Wheel In The Sky or Winds Of March.

The longest track on this album is the less than five minutes long Daydream that probably also is the best song here. Most of the other songs are just over three minutes long and leave very little room for anything interesting. I will not comment further on the individual tracks because they are so uneventful and middle-of-the-road that I wouldn't know what to say about them other than that they are rather weak and unremarkable.

Go for Infinity and avoid this one unless you want to complete your Journey collection. This is possibly the worst Journey album ever.

Progressing

After the release of their breakthrough album "Infinity", drummer Aynsley Dunbar was sacked, not by the band but by their manager. He was replaced by Steve Smith who had spent a brief period with Focus before joining Ronnie Montrose Band. Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker was once again asked to produce this album, which can be seen very much as a continuation of "Infinity". The tracks are kept short, running throughout to 3-4 minutes.

The opening instrumental "Majestic", interestingly co-written by Steve Perry, makes for a nice fanfare introduction, quickly leading into the first of the big ballads "Too late". Neal Schon adds some fine lead guitar to both these tracks, but with every song being kept short, the opportunities for extended instrumentals are long gone.

"Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'", the song which took the band into the US singles top 20 for the first time, shows another side of the band, being a mix of blues and light soul. Thereafter we slip into a succession of largely predictable AOR fair.

Bearing in mind we are still in the 1970's here, well over 30 years ago, the music remains fresh and original. We can be cynical and bemoan the lack of odd time signatures, extended jams etc., but seen for what it is this album (and its peers) is pioneering in its field.

Definitely the weakest of Journey's 1970s albums, 'Evolution' finds the group mining a distinctly soft and very poppy new direction. Whilst the progressive elements of the first three albums are long gone, the new sound introduced on 1978's breakthrough success 'Infinity' at least managed to retain a link with the hard rock coating that was the backbone of early albums 'Journey', 'Look Into The Future' and 'Next'. With the addition of new vocalist Steve Perry, Journey decided to pursue a much more overtly commercial path, and whilst 'Infinity' may have lacked the expansive instrumental flourished of it's predecessor, it was still a fine album showcasing the San Francisco outfit's deft song-writing abilities. Sadly, 'Evolution', unlike it's predecessor, is simply too far removed from the original formula, a fact proved by the move back to hard(er) rock on follow-up release 'Departure', though 'Evolution's stodgy style didn't stop it from being a big success throughout both North America and Japan thanks to the hit single 'Lovin', Touchin', Sqeezin'. Overall, however, 'Evolution' proves to be an anaemic slice of ersatz pop-rock sorely missing the group's trademark anthemic hooks. Even core members Gregg Rolie(keyboards, vocals) and Neal Schon(guitar) give strangely muted performances, leaving in their wake a mushy set of unmemorable tracks that not even the impassioned vocals of Steve Perry can enliven. Even for AOR, this is seriously lightweight, and surely a contender for one of the least accomplished studio albums of Journey's stellar career. A vapid, vacuous and pretty forgettable record, even die-hard fans may struggle with this one.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2O12