Raised on Radio is a hidden gem among the catalogue of everyone’s favourite karaoke arena rock band, Journey. Released in 1986, it rode on the coattails of the band’s earlier success with Escape (1981) and once everyone had established Don’t Stop Believin’ as the only Journey song, Raised on Radio didn’t really get a look-in, despite having some absolute bangers on it.
The first song I latched onto was Suzanne. Before I go much further, a lot of this article is going to be about Steve Perry. He’s one of the unsung (geddit) heroes of rock and practically every song on this album reinforces it. Be Good to Yourself explodes in about 1.5 seconds after the end of Suzanne and the whips you up in a distorted, raspy eighties guide to self help. Perf.
I’m not such a big fan of the title track. It doesn’t stand out particularly prominently and seems a bit of a letdown that it falls into the filler category. It’s also completely overshadowed by It Could Have Been You. For a classic AOR band, the riff is the punchiest, grooviest feature of the album and this carries through the rest of the song.
The final song on the album, Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever, is a hauntingly beautiful piece of music, melodically and lyrically. This one’s always pretty high on the ‘songs which only Steve Perry can sing’ charts – if you don’t believe me, try and hit that note. It fills me with rage when people consider Aerosmith’s Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing the best power ballad of all time. Like, it’s not. It’s so not that it’s not even funny. I love Diane Warren, but come on. I’m not saying that I necessarily think that WCTNGOF is the best power ballad of all time, because I don’t, but I definitely know which one I think is better.
I love this album. It doesn’t deserve to be as overlooked as I think it has been. Overall, it’s energetic, dynamic and some of melodic rock’s finest. It’s well worth a listen, so that if anyone ever says to you that Don’t Stop Believing is the best Journey song, you can say “ah, but…”