I would say that this one sounds a lot like Journey, but that would be an understatement. Four of the ten tracks were produced by Jonathan Cain and the line up on those four songs was: Keyboard – Jonathan Cain, Guitar – Neal Schon, Bass – Randy Jackson, Drums – Michael Baird. Otherwise known as the Journey Tour Band Circa 1987 Short Steve Perry. Also appearing on this album are James Ingram, Eric Martin, David Glen Eisley, Bruce Kulick (who later turned up in Kiss,) and Mugs Cain (Jonathan’s little brother.)

Hot Love
This is the song Bruce Kulick is on, not that you can tell. They really could have picked up any long haired guitar player and it would have been the same. All the art has been leached out of this one. Soon to be heard at a supermarket near you.

Wait On Love
The first of the Journey … er Jonathan Cain produced / Journey-as-back-up-band songs. If you liked Journey’s Raised on Radio, you will like this one. If not, chances are you’re not going to like anything on this album.

Sittin’ On the Dock Of the Bay
You know, if Jonathan was really jonesing to record this song why didn’t he just talk to Steve Perry about it. Steve loved that stuff. And he’d have sung it with a little flavor instead of this bleached out bland version. If you like this song, get an original version.

Gina
I spent about 5 minutes studying the liner notes trying to figure out if there was a human being involved in the making of this song. I’m still not sure. There are like 3 different people credited with programming. I’m sure the lyrics were spit out by a random song generator. Nobody could write this passionlessly on purpose.

That’s What Love Is All About
A ballad. A trite, boring, ballad that was probably played at every wedding for 2 years after it came out. Robinmichele, please tell me your dj didn’t play this. Nobody even humorous even worked on this track, though there seems to have been a lot of programming going on here.

The Hunger
This is the third Cain produced track and it features Jonathan on keyboard, Randy Jackson on bass and Mugs Cain on drums. It sounds like weak Journey. It also brings to mind those New Age albums Jonathan Cain did (betcha didn’t even know about those. There’s a very good reason you didn’t. They’re terrible.) I’m amazed, on retrospect, just how lifeless and uninteresting these songs are. Why did this guy have a career?

You’re All That I Need
Wow does this sound like Journey. It sounds like it might have been left over from the writing sessions for Escape. Except that there’s this keyboard thing that I didn’t remember Cain using until Frontiers. "Faithfully" maybe. Eric Martin supposedly sings background on this, but I can’t pick him out. The back up singing has been over produced into a blur. I could have been singing back up.

Take a Look At My Face
How weird does this sound? When this song first started I thought I was listening to Robbie Nevil. It could have been. This song (as with all others) is so designed that it could have been any of the pop hits of that year.

Walk Away
This is the only song worth listening to on this album. Nice solid ballad. Reasonably soulful singing. I can’t say that the lyrics are groundbreaking, but they aren’t too cliched. I’m pretty sure this song was written by a person and not a computer program.

Why do I own these tapes? I was really depressed when my husband bought them for me. They seemed fine at the time. Why do I still have them? Because I almost never throw anything away. All the stuff I really like has been transferred to CD by now anyway. Besides, sometimes it’s good to pull out the truly awful and wallow in it. And negative Epinions are fun to write.


Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Going to Sleep