Arrival

Japanese version of their 2000 studio album with one bonus track, 'To Be Alive Again'. 14 tracks in all including the singles, 'Higher Place' and 'All The Way'. The lineup includes original guitarist Neal Schon and bassist Ross Valory along with Steve Perry soundalike Steve Augeri (Tall Stories, Tyketto). No U.S. release scheduled until January 2001. Standard jewelcase.

The centerpiece of the Paul-is-dead conspiracy theory was that McCartney had died in 1966 and been replaced by a sound-alike augmented with plastic surgery. Journey is hardly the Beatles, but Arrival, the zillion-selling band's first studio album in nearly five years, puts a fitting twist on the scenario by hiding its Steve Perry doppelgänger in plain sight. New lead singer Steve Augeri has not only the voice, but all its inflections--notably Perry's trademark "wo-oh-oh" Sam Cooke homage--down pat, and getting it down pat is what this collection is all about. The opening "Higher Place" thumps with a rock! melodrama so familiar it should be titled "Separate Ways, Part 2," while the power ballads that follow recall the pre-Bon Jovi days when Journey ruled as a kind of high school parking lot Air Supply. Arrival is one of those records you already know you love or hate before you hear it, but even fans might feel a lack of heat compared to the Perry-era outfit's greatest-hits disc. --Rickey Wright