Next (Journey album)
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| Studio album by Journey | ||||
| Released | February 1977 | |||
| Recorded | May - October 1976 at His Master's Wheels, San Francisco, California | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock, hard rock | |||
| Length | 37:37 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Journey | |||
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| Singles from Next | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Next is the third studio album by Journey, released in 1977. The band continued the formula from 1976's Look into the Future but this album also retains some of their jazzy progressive rock style from the first album. It is the last album to exclusively feature Gregg Rolie on lead vocals. "Spaceman" and "Nickel and Dime" were the two singles released from Next.
The instrumental "Cookie Duster" was listed in very early pressings of the album, though not actually included on the album. It was later released on Journey's Time³ compilation.
Next reached #85 on the Billboard 200 Albums charts.
Although he did not contribute to Next, lead vocalist Robert Fleischman joined Journey shortly after the album's release as a songwriter and the group's first dedicated frontman, sharing lead vocal duties with Rolie during subsequent live shows. All of the songs on the album vanished from the band's live setlist after 1979 and two ("Spaceman" and "Here We Are") have never been performed live.
Retrospectively, Next received a 2 out of 5 on AllMusic. Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that "without a forceful lead vocalist like Steve Perry, the group lacks focus and a pop sensibility and its attempts at straight-ahead pop/rock suffer considerably as a result."
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