Escape (Journey album)

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Escape
JourneyEscapealbumcover.jpg
Cover art by Stanley Mouse
Studio album by Journey
Released July 31, 1981
Recorded Escade StudiosHollywood, California, April–June 1981
Genre Rock
Length 42:46
Label Columbia
Producer Mike Stone, Kevin Elson
Journey chronology
Captured
(1981)Captured1981		 Escape
(1981)		 Frontiers
(1983)Frontiers1983
Singles from Escape
  1. "Who's Crying Now" / "Mother, Father"
    Released: July 1981
  2. "Don't Stop Believin'" / "Natural Thing"
    Released: October 1981
  3. "Open Arms" / "Little Girl"
    Released: January 1982
  4. "Still They Ride" / "Raza del Sol"
    Released: May 1982
  5. "Who's Crying Now" / "Don't Stop Believin'"
    Released: August 1982
  6. "Stone in Love" / "Only Solutions"
    Released: October 1982

Escape (stylized as E5C4P3 on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by American rock band Journey, released on July 31, 1981. It topped the American Billboard 200 chart[1] and features four hit Billboard Hot 100 singles – "Don't Stop Believin'" (#9), "Who's Crying Now" (#4), "Still They Ride" (#19) and "Open Arms" (#2)[2] – plus rock radio staple "Stone in Love." It was certified 9x platinum by the RIAA[3] and sold over twelve million copies worldwide, making it the band's most successful studio album and second most successful album overall behind Greatest Hits.

Background and writing

Escape was the band's first album with keyboardist Jonathan Cain who replaced founding keyboardist Gregg Rolie after he left the band at the end of 1980. The album was co-produced by former Lynyrd Skynyrd soundman Kevin Elson and one-time Queen engineer Mike Stone, who also engineered the album.

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music 4/5 stars[5]
The Great Rock Discography 8/10[6]
Rolling Stone 2/5 stars[7]

Mike DeGagne of AllMusic retrospectively awarded Escape four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, "The songs are timeless, and as a whole, they have a way of rekindling the innocence of youthful romance and the rebelliousness of growing up, built from heartfelt songwriting and sturdy musicianship".[4] Colin Larkin awarded the album four out of five stars in the 2002 edition of the Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music.[5] Contemporary Rolling Stone reviews were less favourable. The first review of 1981 by Deborah Frost marked Journey as heavy metal posers and the music in the album as easily playable by any session musician. In the 2004 edition of their album guide, Rolling Stone awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, which was nonetheless an improvement from Dave Marsh's one star rating in the 1983 edition of the publication.[8] The same critic years later wrote that "Journey, originally a progressive rock band, experienced strong resentment from many music critics after they embraced the pop sensibilities of the 1980s with smash hits like "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Open Arms".[9]

In 1988, Kerrang! readers voted Escape the greatest AOR album of all time.[10] The following year, the magazine ranked Escape #32 in "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".[11] A 2000 Virgin poll saw the album voted the 24th greatest heavy metal/alternative rock album of all time.[12] In 2001, Classic Rock ranked the album #22 in "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time".[13] In 2006, the same publication recognized the importance of the album's contribution to popular music in the 1980s by including it in their "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 80s" as one of the twenty greatest albums of 1981.[14] Q magazine ranked Escape 15th in its "Records it's OK to Love" in 2006.[15]

An Atari 2600 game based on the album, Journey Escape, was released in 1982.

Track listing

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Don't Stop Believin'"   Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry, Neal Schon 4:11
2. "Stone in Love"   Cain, Perry, Schon 4:26
3. "Who's Crying Now"   Cain, Perry 5:01
4. "Keep on Runnin'"   Cain, Perry, Schon 3:40
5. "Still They Ride"   Cain, Perry, Schon 3:50
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
6. "Escape"   Cain, Perry, Schon 5:17
7. "Lay It Down"   Cain, Perry, Schon 4:13
8. "Dead or Alive"   Cain, Perry, Schon 3:21
9. "Mother, Father"   Cain, Joe Perry, S. Perry, Matt Schon, N. Schon 5:29
10. "Open Arms"   Cain, Perry 3:23

Personnel

Band members

Production

Charts

Escape had the fifth highest selling debut of 1981, just behind Bella Donna from Stevie Nicks.

Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
September 12–18, 1981		 Succeeded by
Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones

Certifications

Country Organization Year Sales
USA RIAA 1994 9x Platinum (+9,000,000)[3]
Canada CRIA 1983 3x Platinum (+300,000)[25]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for albums by Journey. Retrieved on June 30, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Larkin, Colin. Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2002)
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004)
  9. ↑ Marsh, Dave. "Sez Who? Bands & Singers Critics Love to Hate". New Book of Rock Lists. Sidgwick & Jackson. 1994.
  10. ↑ The Best AOR Albums Of All Time. Kerrang!. October 29, 1988. Archived at rocklistmusic.co.uk
  11. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". Kerrang!. January 1989. Archived at rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  12. ↑ Heavy Metal/Alternative Rock – All Time Top 50. Virgin. 2000. Archived at rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  13. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time". Classic Rock. Christmas 2001. Archived at acclaimedmusic. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  14. ↑ "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 80s". Classic Rock. 2006. Archived at acclaimedmusic. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  15. ↑ Guilty Pleasures!: Essential Playlist of the 115 Records it’s OK to Love. Q magazine. September 2006. Archived at rocklistmusic.co.uk
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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