Journey’s Escape still rocks 25 years later.:
The album begins with “Don’t Stop Believin,’ ” a song that just may have magical properties within its opening piano signature. Seriously, lock yourself in a room right now and listen to that keyboard part 35 times in a row. Sick of it yet? If you said yes, then you’re a filthy liar.
To cite Escape as a seminal album in the formation of my strange musical foundation is an understatement. It was the first album I ever purchased (I must have been twelve-years old at the time), and its hallowed embossed cover and vinyl still resides somewhere in my parents’ garage.
It’s one of those _guilty pleasure_ albums that I listen to after establishing my aging (and probably phony) indie cred with the likes of Sunburn and Alien Lanes or when I get the urge to do some long-hair rockin’. Favorite moments on the album: the opening piano on Don’t Stop Believing, Neil Schon’s guitar solo on Who’s Cryin’ Now, the entirety of Open Arms. Cheesy and still absolutely fscking magic. By the way, does anyone remember the similarly named Journey arcade game from the 80s?
Next up, it’s just five more years till The Queen Is Dead retrospective.
