Maps of Music

Frontiers (1983)

Where the lyrics of Frontiers take you, and where it was really made.

Frontiers reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, yet critics gave it mixed reviews, and two songs were swapped out at the last minute before pressing.

Key places

Recorded and mixed at Fantasy Studios (1983)

Recording site Fantasy Studios — The album was recorded and mixed at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. Spanish Wikipedia gives the recording period as about three months. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Frontiers is the eighth studio album by the American rock band Journey, released on 1 February 1983 by Columbia Records
• It was the last album to feature bassist Ross Valory until Trial by Fire in 1996
• The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and produced four top 40 singles
• It was the band's highest-charting album in the United Kingdom, reaching No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart in 1983

Background

• The album had been sequenced and prepped for pressing when a last-minute conference with A&R man Michael Dillbeck led to two songs being pulled
• The two pulled songs were Ask the Lonely and Only the Young
• They were replaced by Back Talk and Troubled Child
• Ask the Lonely was later used in the soundtrack for the film Two of a Kind
• Only the Young was later used in the soundtrack for the film Vision Quest

Recording

• Recorded and mixed at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California
• Produced and engineered by Mike Stone, with Kevin Elson as co-producer and mixer
• Spanish Wikipedia gives the recording period as about three months

Cover

• Jim Welch designed the album cover
• It was the first album cover since Next (1977) that did not involve Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · es.wikipedia.org

Artist

Formation

• Journey is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1973 by former members of Santana, the Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch.
• The band was originally called the Golden Gate Rhythm Section, intended as a backup group for Bay Area artists, before developing a jazz fusion style.
• The name Journey was suggested by roadie John Villanueva.

Members

• Current lineup includes Neal Schon (guitars, vocals), Jonathan Cain (keyboards, guitars, vocals), Deen Castronovo (drums, vocals), Arnel Pineda (lead vocals), Jason Derlatka (keyboards, vocals), and Todd Jensen (bass, vocals).
• Steve Perry was lead vocalist from 1977 to 1987, the band's most commercially successful period.

Career

• Escape reached number one on the Billboard 200 and produced "Open Arms" and "Don't Stop Believin'".
• Frontiers reached number two in the US and number six on the UK Albums Chart.
• "Don't Stop Believin'" was certified 18-times platinum by the RIAA in 2024, the top-selling digital track in US history.
• The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
• A farewell tour, the Final Frontier Tour, began in February 2026 after Jonathan Cain announced his departure.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone's J. D. Considine gave the album two stars out of five
• Considine noted that the band's move toward a less commercial sound did not look like much of a risk, calling it in some ways the band's most conservative effort yet
• AllMusic's Mike DeGagne gave a positive review, though he felt the album fell a little short of Escape
• DeGagne wrote that the keyboards seemed to overtake both Neal Schon's guitar playing and Steve Perry's singing
• The Village Voice's Robert Christgau gave the album a D+

Reappraisal

• Paul Elliott of Classic Rock declared Faithfully the greatest power ballad of all time in 2008
• Rock Hard ranked the album number 363 in its 2005 book The 500 Greatest Rock and Metal Albums of All Time

Records

• Billboard 200: No. 2
• Four top 40 singles: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) No. 8, Faithfully No. 12, After the Fall and Send Her My Love No. 23
• Chain Reaction became a rock radio hit
• UK Albums Chart: No. 6 in 1983
• Sweden No. 21, Norway No. 12
• RIAA certification of 6× Platinum, dated 16 May 1997 in the Spanish article
• Sales above six million copies since 1983, per the Portuguese article

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Only the Young would find its way into the Top Ten two years later, through the soundtrack of Vision Quest
• Randy Jackson played bass on After the Fall as an additional musician
• Jim Welch said the alien on the cover was not really an alien but a link to a higher level of listening to Journey
• The track durations listed on the Japanese insert differ slightly from those on other worldwide issues

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · en.wikipedia.org

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