Sorry for the delay. It's tough typing lost posts with a broken hand. But onward...
Journey - Escape
Songs:
-Don't Stop Believin'
-Stone in Love
-Who's Crying Now
-Keep On Runnin'
-Still They Ride
-Escape
-Lay It Down
-Dead or Alive
-Mother, Father
-Open Arms
As a kid with an AM radio and a paper route back when this album came out, I knew nothing about the history of this band. I only knew the songs that were played on the radio CONSTANTLY. And I loved them. Then one day, I carefully clipped the return card from a newspaper ad, filled it out, taped a penny to it, and mailed it in. And I waited. And like magic, several weeks later, a box shows up at my door with this album and 12 others. Life. Changed.
It was only then that I eventually discovered just how deep this album was. This was not a "2 radio hits and 8 filler songs" album. This entire album was pretty strong. And these guys could go from soft piano ballad, to pop hit, to rocking out pretty hard. Of course, at the time, I had no idea of the band's roots, touring around everywhere as a baby band with Y&T, or their early progressive leanings, or any of that. I only knew that they wrote really good songs. And at the end of the day, that's what makes this album so good. I fully understand some of the old-school fans feeling like Perry and Cain changed them into a pop band and dumbed them down. But the thing is, they are great musicians, and they wrote and performed great songs. And that's what hooked me on this album.