''Escape'' (stylized as ''E5C4P3'' on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by American rock band Journey, released on July 20, 1981, by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. It topped the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart and featured four hit ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles – " Don't Stop Believin" ( 9), " Who's Crying Now" (No. 4), "Still They Ride" (No. 19) and " Open Arms" (No. 2) – plus rock radio staple "Stone in Love". In July 2021, it was certified

Diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) for at least ten million sales in the US, making it the band's most successful studio album and second most successful album overall behind '' Greatest Hits''. ''Escape'' was the fifth-highest selling album of 1981, just behind '' Bella Donna'' from Stevie Nicks.

Background and writing

''Escape'' was the band's first album with keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who replaced founding member Gregg Rolie after he left the band at the end of 1980. The album was co-produced by former Lynyrd Skynyrd sound technician Kevin Elson and one-time

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

engineer Mike Stone, who also engineered the album.

Reception and legacy

Mike DeGagne of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

retrospectively awarded ''Escape'' four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, "The songs are timeless, and as a whole, they have a way of rekindling the innocence of youthful romance and the rebelliousness of growing up, built from heartfelt songwriting and sturdy musicianship." Colin Larkin awarded the album four out of five stars in the 2002 edition of the Virgin ''

Encyclopedia of Popular Music ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Kno ...

''. Larkin, Colin. '' Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' (2002) Contemporary ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' reviews were less favorable. The first review of 1981 by Deborah Frost marked Journey as heavy metal posers and the music in the album as easily playable by any session musician. In the 2004 edition of their album guide, ''Rolling Stone'' awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, which was nonetheless an improvement from Dave Marsh's one star rating in the 1983 edition of the publication. In 1988, ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'' readers voted ''Escape'' the greatest AOR album of all time―''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

'' expressed the same opinion in 2008. In 1989, ''Kerrang!'' ranked ''Escape'' number 32 in "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". A 2000 Virgin poll saw the album voted the 24th greatest heavy metal/

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

album of all time. In 2001, ''Classic Rock'' ranked the album 22 in "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time". In 2006, the same publication included it in their "200 Greatest Albums of the 80s", as one of the twenty greatest albums of 1981. ''Q'' magazine ranked ''Escape'' 15th among its "Records it's OK to Love" in 2006. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' described "Still They Ride" as a "

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

y lament" with a "sad, almost mournful" vocal, "doleful acoustic piano work" and "crying guitar notes." '' Billboard'' called "Still They Ride" a "soft, lyrical ballad" with similar "tone and style" to "Open Arms". An Atari 2600 game based on the album, '' Journey Escape'', was released in 1982.

Track listing

Personnel

Journey

* Steve Perry – lead vocals, producer (tracks 12–14) * Neal Schon – lead guitar, backing vocals * Jonathan Cain – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Ross Valory – bass, backing vocals * Steve Smith – drums

Production

* Mike Stone, Kevin Elson – producers,

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

, mixing *Wally Buck – assistant engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– original mastering, remastering *Brian Lee – remastering * Herbie Herbert –

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

*Jim Welch –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, art direction * Stanley Mouse – illustrations

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Escape (Journey album) Journey (band) albums 1981 albums Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Mike Stone (record producer) Albums produced by Kevin Elson