9 years and 3 albums into their reunion, Journey refuse to pander to their vintage sound. Their stance is frustratingly laudable—an inventive obstinacy to be admired with a moderately heavy middle. The Oxford band won’t have invented the shoegaze palette of swirling guitars and dreamy vocals, however within the early Nineties, when the style first began to take grasp, Journey had been the shoegaze poster boys, their sharp songs and excellent appears to be like taking the Thames Valley sound to the higher reaches of the United Kingdom charts. And if Slowdive have surpassed them in reputation post-reformation, you’ll nonetheless listen the vaporous power of Journey’s debut album, Nowhere, within the track of nu-gaze bands from Hotline TNT to For Tracy Hyde.
Sarcastically, the shoegaze revivalists ceaselessly sound significantly extra connected to vintage Journey than Journey themselves do at the present time. The band’s first post-reunion album, Climate Diaries, bore distinctly fashionable manufacturing touches, whilst 2019’s This Is No longer a Secure Position was once a broad-ranging church that encompassed electro pop and acoustic jangle in its eclectic sweep. The crowd has framed Interaction because the album that brings all of it in combination, uniting the other facets of the Journey narrative. But it surely’s now not actually Journey sufficient for that—extra the sound of a band attempting on other kinds to peer what suits, hindered via some mediocre songwriting.
Journey, at their vintage best possible, married haunting vocal harmonies to pillowing partitions of guitar, just like the Byrds by way of My Bloody Valentine. However distorted guitar is lacking from maximum of Interaction, and its absence is felt extra keenly than at any level for the reason that workforce’s reunion. As an alternative, the surprising sound that hangs closely over the hole part of the album is that of New Order. “Ultimate Frontier” is the spitting symbol of Manchester’s favourite sons of their rocking mode—Peter Hook-style I’m-in-control-here-lads bassline and all—whilst the chiming guitar and easy synth chords on “Monaco” (which even stocks a reputation with a Hook facet venture) grasp a reflect as much as New Order at their ’90s glossiest.
Interaction isn’t, then, the paintings of a bunch unduly all for fan provider. As an alternative, the album continues within the liberated lineage of This Is No longer a Secure Position, the place a reunited band freed from the crushing pressure of legend standing will get on with doing regardless of the hell it likes—see additionally the Jesus and Mary Chain’s luckily all-over-the-place 2024 album Glasgow Eyes. As on Climate Impact, the ordinary fashionable manufacturing impact sneaks thru, such because the filtered fusion of French contact and shoegaze on “Peace Signal,” together with the psychedelic guitar whimsy (the captivating “Ultimate Night time I Went Someplace To Dream”) and dreamy acoustic strum (“Keep Loose”) that their two earlier albums did smartly.
The album additionally is going approach additional out into the weeds. “First light Chaser” is a shiny wink clear of being a disco file, with its funk bassline and what appears like a Nile Rodgers-style guitar chuck; “I Got here to See the Spoil” is kindergarten Depeche Mode without any of Dave Gahan’s pervy depth; and the shuffling breakbeat and cinematic guitar results of “Essaouira” recommend the trip-hop acts that adopted Journey into the charts 3 many years in the past.
