NEXT

Next was the last of the three pre-Steve Perry Journey albums and as such it is a bit of a transitional album between the two phases of the band's career. The songs are slightly shorter and a bit less jazzy. Like on the previous Looking Into The Future album, there is too much Led Zeppelin-like, rambling Blues Rock here that seems to go nowhere. Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. Only occasionally is there a good passage with an interesting riff or solo, sometimes synthesisers play a role, but these good moments are all too few and far between. The intro to I Would Find You seems to be heavily inspired by Rainbow's Tarrot Woman, but what follows is a terribly dull and middle-of-the-road Blues rocker.

The better songs come at the beginning of the album with the opening track Spaceman standing out as a decent song. Overall, I think that the present album is slightly better than Looking Into The Future and slightly less good compared to the debut. Had they combined the best tracks from these first three albums and made it into a single album, it would have been a better one compared to any of these albums as they stand, but it would still have been miles behind Infinity.

It is hard to believe that only a year after this they would release the very different and very much better Infinity. I can recommend this album only to serious fans and collectors who would like to explore the early days of Journey.

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