DEPARTURE

This album contains straight hard-rock / AOR music. Commercially, it was a successful album for the band as their previous albums were not able to chart no. 8 on the album charts which also included the top-25 Any Way You Want It. (album opener). Journey's first 3 albums ("Journey" from 1975, "Look into the future" 1976 and "Next" 1977) sold very poorly and largely ignored by music critics and the public. But since 1978 the band changed their music direction from something jazz-rock with progressive elements to more commercial nature. "Departure" marked the last studio appearance of founding member Gregg Rolie (ex Santana).

For those who enjoy straight hard rock music, this is a good one to have. The opener "Any Way You Want It" (3:21) is probably too poppy for most rockers. But the second track " Walks Like A Lady" (3:16) reminds us to the classic rock kind of music especially through the bluesy style of the music with good Hammond work by Greg Rollie. One thing that is very enjoyable is the guitar work by Neal Schon and excellent vocal of Steve Perry. You can hear stunning guitar solo on tracks like "Line on Fire", "Precious Time" and "I'm Cryin'". The album features good ballads like "Someday Soon" and "People And Places".

Overall, this is a good straight hard rock album with good songwriting and performance. No single track having prog elements. But it's worth listening to. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW