Revelation

Revelation is a moving comeback on which Journey, welcoming the new singer Arnel Pineda from the Philippines, carefully builds spreading keyboards, songcraft-filled guitar and big choruses. Pineda, whose singing on a video site caught Neal Schon’s eye and who was given a great break, gives the band’s sound a fresh, sure new momentum with his fresh, powerful voice. While faithfully keeping the band’s representative style, there is a sure newness. From the powerful drive of the opener “Never Walk Away” and the drama of “Like a Sunshower” to cuts like “Change for the Better,” “Wildest Dream” and “After All These Years,” ballads’ warm emotional expression and up-tempo songs’ exhilarating speed line up naturally, and the band’s stance of believing in melody above all is consistent. Its gorgeous content, including new recordings of old classics, also pleases fans. Pineda’s joining, which drew great attention as a Cinderella story, brought the band a miraculous rebirth. A record that grandly inscribes a new, powerful restart in Journey’s long catalog. Fusing Pineda’s astonishing voice and the band’s sure playing, it is a moving, engaging, fulfilling work — a record announcing the start of the band’s new golden age.