The Best Of 2008: Eric Grubbs

Probably my utmost favorite album of the year is not something anybody I know that’s into punk, hardcore, or post-hardcore would truly like. Matter of fact, it would probably make people question my credibility and taste in music in general. Yet I see not guilt in something that I truly like, and see no real reason to have my tongue in my cheek as I write this. I can’t help but be rather defensive in describing my fandom of Journey’s 2008 album, Revelation.

What? Journey? You mean that band that’s so synonymous with corporate rock, aka, one of the big things punk rebelled against in the 70s? Yes, that one.

As much as I like Hot Water Music, face to face, and Wire, I consider myself a fan of music. Yes, there are styles I like more than others (and others I downright loathe), but at its core, music is notes and beats more than sociological implications.

Read more after the jump.

So with all that out of the way, let me dissect Revelation.

Journey’s most recent incarnation on paper sounds like a recipe for pure disaster. A singer in a cover band found via YouTube now fronting one of the biggest rock bands around? But Arnel Pineda has the voice and the skills to do the job really well. And the songs are really strong. And the album’s not too long or too short.

This might sound sacrilegious (maybe it’s too late to say that, given the whole gist of this write-up), but I think the band did the right thing in replacing Steve Perry in the late 90s. The band was becoming more of an adult contemporary band than a rock band. Something in the songwriting shifted things over the course of the two albums between ’96’s Trial By Fire and Revelation. And I liked that change.

I’m well aware of how much this band is hated by musical purists, but as much as I am one myself, I can’t hide behind the fact that I love this style of music. I was surprised not only by how good Revelation is, but also how I kept listening to it over and over again in 2008.