Arriving 11 years after 2011's Eclipse, Freedom is Journey's 15th studio effort and their third outing with vocalist Arnel Pineda. It also marks the return of Raised on Radio bassist Randy Jackson, who stepped in after the band's abrupt split with founding member Ross Valory in 2020. Journey's post-Steve Perry releases have been reliable yet unremarkable, with showrunners Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain attempting to wring out every last bit of headband sweat from the group's chart-topping heydays. That trend continues on Freedom, a relentlessly anthemic and underwhelming set filled with over-the-counter power ballads and bloated AOR rockers that do very little to earn a 70-minute runtime. The performances, however, are top-notch, with Narada Michael Walden and former member Deen Castronovo sharing drum duties, Schon flexing his still impressive melodic-lead muscles, and Pineda continuing to push his voice outside the Perry penumbra. It's the songwriting that feels tired. That said, a band that's been around for just under 50 years has every right to indulge in some artistic navel-gazing. Classic rock is the new oldies, and artists still fanning and feeding the flames do so with shovels encumbered by nostalgia. Songs like "Together We Run" ("Don't Stop Believing"), "Don't Give Up On Us" ("Separate Ways [World Apart]"), and "You Got the Best of Me" ("Any Way You Want It") stand out not because they're the best cuts on the album, but because the tracks they're parroting are superior in every way.
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