Journey Preview New LP ‘Freedom’ With ‘You Got the Best of Me’

Journey’s new LP Freedom is arriving on July 8, and they’ve just shared their new single “You Got The Best of Me.”

“I wanted kind of a punky rendition of ‘Any Way You Want It’”, guitarist and Journey founder Neal Schon said in a statement. “I usually don’t go in saying I’m going to look for something like that, but then it just came to me, like “Wheel in the Sky” did years ago. It just kind of flew out of my mouth.”

Freedom is their first collection of original songs since 2011’s Eclipse. They created much of it during the pandemic, working at different studios from around the globe. “During the pandemic, there wasn’t much to do,” Schon said. “I spent a lot of time in my little studio at home, learning how to play keyboards and looping. Some of those ideas ended up being songs. So it kind of came out of nowhere.”

It’s also their first album since parting ways with founding bassist Ross Valory and longtime drummer Steve Smith following a business dispute over the band’s trademark. They were replaced by Raised On Radio-era bassist Randy Jackson and drummer Narada Michael Walden.

“It’s somewhat like the sound back in the Eighties when Randy Jackson joined the band for the Raised on Radio album,” frontman Arnel Pineda told Rolling Stone last year. “Narada is producing my vocals and mentoring me on how to do it. He’s telling me to sing it this way and that way. It’s amazing. I’m learning a lot from Narada. It’s truly an honor and I appreciate him for doing so. It’s amazing.”

Walden stepped away from Journey when they hit the road earlier this year. He was replaced by Deen Castronovo, who toured with the band from 1998 until 2015. Jackson plays bass on the album, but he hasn’t been on the road with them this year. Todd Jensen has been filling in for him.

Journey has been playing American arenas with Toto since late February. The set is heavy on their classic hits, but they did play new song “The Way We Used To Be” at some of the early shows. The tour wraps up May 16 in Quebec City, Canada. In July, they are playing a brief residency Resorts World in Las Vegas where they will be joined every night by a symphony.

In the longer term, a biopic about Arnel Pineda is in the works by Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu and Joker/The Fighter screenwriter Scott Silver. “I’ve spoken many times with Scott Silver,” Pineda told Rolling Stone last year. “What’s interesting about my story is that I’ve survived two coup attempts here in the Philippines before I went to Hong Kong for 10 years. I don’t know he if plans to tell what happened to me in Hong Kong, but I had 10 years there. He might focus on my love story with my wife now.”

He thinks the movie might end when he made his debut with Journey at a Chilean stadium gig in 2008. “I’ve been implying it to him that we should end everything in Chile,” Pineda said. “And I remember when my wife decided to join me on tour in 2011. We were playing to a 30,000 crowd that night. I was telling my wife, ‘Remember Hard Rock Cafe when there were only three tables? Now it’s 30,000 people.’ It was just unbelievable. It doesn’t get old to me. It’s still so surreal and bizarre.”

Freedom Track Listing

1. “Together We Run”
2. “Don’t Give Up on Us”
3. “Still Believe in Love”
4. “You Got The Best of Me”
5. “Live To Love Again”
6. “The Way We Used to Be”
7. “Come Away With Me”
8. “After Glow”
9. “Let It Rain”
10. “Holdin On”
11. “All Day and All Night”
12. “Don’t Go”
13. “United We Stand”
14. “Life Rolls On”
15. “Beautiful As You Are”