JOURNEY

I would not call this a great album by any stretch of my imagination, but JOURNEY is a rather solid one. I like to think of this as Ambrosia's debut without the unnecessary moments. It's jazz-rock teetering in the slightest fringes of the outer regions of the grey matter of prog, but probably the big reason why Journey got the OK on PA. There are plenty of great piano lines and screaming-wild Neal Schon moments throughout the album, and the band can function as a unit. The music comes out to just mere good.

Keep in mind that there are some poppier moments like ''To Play Some Music'' that might make you think Perry is not far behind. ''Kohoutek'' and ''Topaz'' are pretty much answers to the more commercial moments as both take a bit of time to get going but put on a full blitz package when they do. There's some pretty fiery jazz-rock here that nip at pseudo-metal ambiences. You'll get a fair share of ''tweeners'' too like ''My Lonely Feeling'' and ''In the Morning Day'' as they both try pop but with some jazz flair.

It's notable for being Journey's first album and when they were still ex-Santana members and friends. No Steve Perry anywhere here, so if you hated that version of the band, you can relax. It's worth an ear if you like more prog and less pop in your music cup.