Pop Culture Interlude: Journey, Revelation

[Edits below.]

Sometimes I think I am the only one who thinks Arnel Pineda doesn’t sound much like Steve Perry on this new Revelation album/production. Let me hearken back to Sunny Vergara’s “It’s Steve, and It’s Not Steve” post over at his American Pop blog, in which he discusses mass media, Rolling Stone, et al, claiming Pineda sounds “spookily similar” to Perry. In terms of enunciation, I think there are some similarities, and perhaps this is inevitable, given the material. I will concede that the alleged Filipinos’ “tongues like parrots,” as Sunny writes, has something to do with this, something about Filipinos aspiring to speak English like Americans do. Though I do not think this is specific to Filipinos.

Regarding quality of voice, I don’t think there are many marked similarities. In fact, rather than a Steve Perry, a more apt comparison would be the voice of the singer of the Judas part (or do I mean the Jesus part?) in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and other similar ranges of voices that you hear in Broadway productions. That kind of power tenor with alternate moments of smooth and grit. A lotta lungs, and some (relative) youth. You hear the new recording of “Any Way You Want It,” and can’t help but think, yes indeed, these guys ain’t too old for the next round of arena rock.

Listening to disc two of this two-CD, one-DVD release, here are a couple of things I am thinking:

(1) Even with Pineda’s lovely bits of vibrato, this new version of Journey has a much more masculine sound than I ever associated with the traditional Journey. In fact, since I was like nine years old, I’d always thought Perry’s voice verged on that caterwauling Peter Cetera sound. Not so much the epitome of masculine in rock and roll.

(2) Comparisons are inevitable, given this new re-recording of classic Journey. This disc two is good rendition. The instrumentation is nearly identical to the original, and really, plugging in any singer I think would yield comparisons to Perry. Here, while not exactly the same thing, I think of the VH1 Storytellers: The Doors, with younger singers (Train’s Patrick Monahan, STP’s Scott Weiland, The Cult’s Ian Astbury) plugged in to sing the part of Jim Morrison with the surviving Doors. Emotional and diehard comparisons to Morrison are inevitable. I also think of younger bands that tailor their sound after their forebears, for example, Keane’s “Is It Any Wonder?” and U2’s “Zoo Station.” Modest Mouse sounding like a young David Byrne. Melodies and chord progressions of Coldplay’s latest, and Joe Satriani. It happens.

So these are just some incomplete thoughts.

BTW this is the first Journey album I’ve purchased since Escape on vinyl, circa 1981.