RAISED ON RADIO

Well. I mean: this album sounds more like another mid eighties solo album from Steve Perry than an album by JOURNEY. "Raised on Radio" was recorded in late 1985, and released in 1986, and it sounds very influenced by Steve Perry's previous solo album titled "Street Talk" from 1984, which I listened to several times in 1985 and I never liked it. In fact, I saw this "Raised on Radio" album in a record shop in 1986, and I didn't buy it after I listened to the song "Be Good to Yourself "in the radio several times. Full Corporate Rock music. That is: very commercial Pop Rock from that period of time, sounding very influenced by some bands from the same time (TOTO, STARSHIP). With typical mid eighties's keyboards sounds, reverberation, even the use of sax in some songs (something that the band used for the first time, I think, in this album). There are some very good lead guitar parts played by Neal Schon which identify this album as being an album from JOURNEY. But the album for the most part is very influenced by Steve Perry's successful "Street Talk" album. Of course, he co-produced the "Raised on Radio" album (with Jim Gaines), a thing which then caused some problems. First, bassist Ross Valory left the band before the recording of the album startet, and later drummer Steve Smith left the band after playing the drums on three tracks, saying years later in an interview that for this album it was the first time that he was asked to use a "click track" (a metronome) to record his drum parts, a thing that he didn't like then, because he liked more to play and to record the songs in a more spontaneous way (with him being a very good drummer, I think that he was right). So, the band became a trio (Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon), with the three of them being the main composers of the band anyway, and recruiting some session musicians to record this album and later to go on tour.

This album is not bad as a typical Pop Rock album from the mid eighties. But the sound of the band really changed a lot from previous albums like "Frontiers" (1983) and "Escape" (1981). Maybe the record label executives and A&R personnel wanted this album to be like it is. I was right to never buy this album. It really is for the very dedicated fans of the very typical mid eighties Pop Rock music. Steve Perry is a very good lead singer, and he was going to record a much better solo album for 1994 ("For the Love of Strange Medicine"). But his 1984's "Street Talk" solo album, despite being more successful, was maybe the first step to influence JOURNEY's music in 1985-86 to the point that the band lost some of its original sound and identity. They split after the tour for this album.

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