Day 243: Journey – Infinity
It’s a warm start to a bank holiday weekend in the UK, which means that for the next three days, we’ll all be collectively fighting the little imp on your shoulder that’s telling you that you should be in a beer garden and there are lawn bowls that are begging to be played and it would be very rude not to. With that, I thought I’d spend my day exploring some classic arena rock, which reads very summery to me.
Album cover courtesy of Columbia Records
Journey was formed in San Francisco in 1973 as a potential backing band for various Bay area artists under the name Golden Gate Rhythm Section. It was formed of former members of Santana, the Steve Miller Band and Frumious Bandersnatch, who I am very much not aware of but who sound like one of those fake Benedict Cumberbatch names that people were inventing back in the day. Pretty soon after forming, they realised they had potential on their own and decided to try to make it as a band, changing their name to Journey.
Released in 1978, Infinity was Journey’s first album with singer Steve Perry. Perry had been a singer in a band called Alien Project, but when their bassist died, he thought about quitting music altogether to work at his stepfather’s turkey ranch. His mother convinced him to try out for Journey, and he got the job. Infinity is also Journey’s first foray into a more pop-oriented album from their previous jazz-fusion sound.
I mainly knew Journey from “Don’t Stop Believing” and from watching a whole lot of The OC growing up, so I enjoyed this little foray into a band that’s new for me. But is Journey my thing? No. I’d never mind hearing it, but I’d also never put it on. There’s nothing strictly speaking wrong with it, but I think stadium rock can easily veer into a place where it’s a bit soulless, sounding like something that’s made to be universally palatable and uncontroversial, and Journey goes into that category for me. There’s no conflict or edge to it, but it’s a perfectly decent crowd-pleaser. Fine, if not a bit boring, it’s a 6.5/10.