I bought this latest release from Journey when I spent a week in Metro Manila with my lady friend. She mentioned the band and the new front man, Arnel Pineda, a Filipino. Apparently Pineda was discovered on YouTube, by Neal Schon of Journey, and Pineda was asked by email to audition for Journey. The rest is history.

I bought this album, which was released in 2008, for three reasons: my friend is Filipina, and I thought she would like the album; I also thought I would like the album because Pineda was supposed to sound a lot like Steve Perry, who sang vocals on the band's biggest hits; and, finally, the album would also make a great souvenir of my trip to the Philippines.

I was not disappointed! Revelation, a 2-disc set, is fantastic! Arnel Pineda sounds eerily like Steve Perry, and if one didn't know better, it would be easy to mistake Pineda's vocals for Perry's. That is both a blessing and a curse, as we'll see.

The first CD features 11 new songs that are very much like the songs from the band's golden years in style and theme, and with Pineda's vocals, truly sound like the Journey many of us came to love in the 1980s. Name any popular song from that era, and these new recordings can be placed side-by-side with them and few would be the wiser.

Of the new recordings, the most like the golden years are Never Walk Away, Like A Sunshower, Change for the Better, After All These Years, and Turn Down the World Tonight. The other songs on this disc are also rewarding, but do not compare as easily to the band's landmark hits.

The last song in particular, The Journey (Revelation), is a departure from the style of the hits that made the band popular. It opens with what sounds like an aboriginal chant of some sort, and segue's into an instrumental extravaganza that attempts to be a musical narrative, perhaps. As far as recordings of this type are concerned, I guess it is what one might expect. My personal opinion, however, is that it could have been left off the album. That it is the last song on the disc may indicate that it was something of an afterthought. At any rate, few fans of the Journey we know and love are not likely to listen to this song more than once.

The second disc is an unexpected surprise in the release and contains 11 re-recordings of some of the band's best-known hits: Only the Young, Don't Stop Believin', Wheel in the Sky, Faithfully, Any Way You Want It, Who's Crying Now, Separate Ways, Lights, Open Arms, Be Good to Yourself, and Stone in Love. Pineda sounds eerily like Steve Perry in these recordings, and the only noticeable differences are sometimes the more limited range of Pineda's vocals and how and when Pineda alters the vocal timing. When Pineda's timing doesn't match the original recording, it nearly grates on the ear because the original recordings are so ingrained in our cultural memory. Listeners will have to remember that these re-recordings are like live versions and will differ from the originals to fully appreciate them.

I have mixed feelings about this second CD. On the one hand, it showcases Pineda's vocal capabilities with the band's runaway hits and demonstrates without any shadow of doubht just how much he sounds like Steve Perry. On the other hand, it trivializes Steve Perry's contributions to the band's earlier success on the original recordings. These re-recordings seem to suggest that Steve Perry's voice can be replaced. Some fans may have a hard time getting over how much Pineda actually sounds like Perry on these re-recordings.

Despite this, I think most fans will applaud Pineda's ability to mimic Perry so convincingly in the re-recordings. For those fans who really love the old Journey, and wouldn't want them to change, Pineda is the best choice the band could have made. He fulfills that role in a big way.

Still, one must remember that Pineda has some very big shoes to fill. I am willing to give him the chance, as long as the proper respect is shown to Steve Perry's original recordings and time with the band. Steve should not be forgotten simply because he has been replaced with someone who sounds an awful lot like him. Instead, Pineda will need to forge his own history, his own hits, and slip out from beneath Steve's shadow in time. This will not be easy to do. The band will have need to release several albums to make Steve Perry's ghost fade into the background.

Recommended: Yes