Journey-Frontiers (1983)

Journey's eighth album, "Frontiers", marked a shift towards a harder sound compared to its predecessor, the more melodic "Escape", while still retaining the band's distinctive harmonic and melodic style. However, before this album, Journey faced the daunting challenge of at least matching the five million copies sold of "Escape" at the time (a figure that now approaches twenty million). With this in mind, the band opted for an album packed with energetic tracks, such as the opening "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)", which quickly became a classic. This is followed by the melodic and sentimental "Send Her My Love", where they once again demonstrate why Journey have been true geniuses at composing beautiful and irresistible ballads. The powerful rock of "Chain Reaction" leads into the melodic AOR track "After the Fall", while the enchanting ballad "Faithfully" adds another admirably melancholic moment. From this point on, virtually all the remaining tracks are the hardest on the album, such as the powerful “Edge Of The Blade” and “Back Talk”, or the melodic mid-tempo tracks “Ask The Lonely”, “Frontiers”, and “Troubled Child”, where they combine energy and melody simultaneously. The addictive “Only The Young”, one of the album's hits, deserves special mention. As expected, “Frontiers” didn't reach the astonishing heights of “Escape”, although it did reach number two on the US charts and achieved global sales that far exceeded 7 million copies.