Journey are back! With their first new song of original material in a decade. It’s yet another classic installment of this legendary band.
There’s been a few hiccups in the past few years with Journey. Steve Smith and Ross Valory sued and tried to gain control of the band. Only to find themselves ousted by founder Neil Schon. Schon recruited bassist and all around industry mogul Randy Jackson. Who also played bass during the ‘Raised on Radio’ era. And Narada Michael Walden has joined on drums. Together, they’ve produced a new single ‘The Way We Used To Be.’
What can you say about it? It’s classic Journey. Falls perfectly in line with what they’ve been doing since Arnel Pineda joined on vocals. Which is, high quality, salt of the Earth, middle America, hard rock. Despite being from the Bay area of California, Journey has been embraced by rural U.S. almost like no other. Case and point, the track ‘Faith in the Heartland’ from 2008’s ‘Revelation.’ It’s a good song, but also somewhat of a parody of itself. However, ‘The Way We Used to Be’ is as relevant as anything Journey have made. With the traditional sound we’ve all come to know and love.
Usually the band strays away from current events and news. But the pandemic affected us all. And Journey are certainly no artistic acception. So, just like everyone else, they wrote about the feels that plagued us the past 15 or so months. The music video is essentially an animated montage of a common situation felt across the globe. That of sheer isolation. A little on the nose? Perhaps. But it doesn’t deter from the quality of the song. And, it’s not even a bad music video. Just sort of stereotypical of what you would expect. Hopefully a new album is in the works. But I’ve yet to find any confirmation of a new album being dropped. The band is doing a few shows coming up in Chicago and Las Vegas. So get on it if you want to go.
