Journey

Picked this up in Venice at Salty Dog. The volume is the same as it was last night for Rush. The drums, like the Rush, are muted for me, which is a shame. In fact the whole album sounds a bit anemic, even at volume. It sounds good; I want it to sound better than it does. And this is such a good record — the whole first side is a no-skip.

The guitar-and-drum break in “Chain Reaction” sounded pretty good. But back to the original complaint: why don’t these engineers in the eighties know how to mic these drum gods? Neil Peart and Steve Smith deserve better. What other drummers am I going to end up adding to that list? Steve Perry’s vocals sound good, too, on “After the Fall.”

Some crackle-and-pop on this copy, especially side B, but it seems to be in decent shape. Really, the whole thing does sound a bit gauzy. The drums should be bigger in “Faithfully.” The bass needs help too — it is buried in the mix.