Dream After Dream (1980)
1. Destiny
2. Snow Theme
3. Sand Castles
4. A Few Coins
5. Moon Theme
6. When Love Has Gone
7. Festival Dance
8. The Rape
9. Little Girl
The curious case of Dream, After Dream is one that feels less like a canonical entry in Journey’s catalogue and more like a footnote accidentally left in the main text. The project, as far as one can gather, was conceived as a soundtrack for a Japanese film of the same name—released exclusively in Japan and met with, shall we say, muted enthusiasm. Diehard fans can rest easy: this is not essential listening. In fact, it's barely a Journey album in any meaningful sense.
What’s offered here is a largely instrumental, new-age inspired soundscape—pleasant, atmospheric, and quite unlike anything associated with the band’s established repertoire. There are fleeting moments of beauty, yes, but not the kind that calls for repeated visits. It’s the sort of record that might make excellent background music in a high-end sushi restaurant, but it’s difficult to imagine even the most loyal of Journey followers reaching for this one over, say, Infinity or Escape.
And yet, that unmistakable voice does appear. Steve Perry sings, albeit briefly, suggesting the full lineup was involved to some extent. One assumes this project came about before the band’s commercial ascent, when side ventures like this still seemed like viable artistic detours. The one track that deserves a moment of real attention is the closing number, Little Girl—a song strong enough to earn a place on the retrospective box set Time³. It is, without question, the album’s highlight and very nearly its redemption.
For completists only, then. If you own Time³ (and most serious fans do), there is little to be gained from acquiring this outlier. Dream, After Dream is less an album than a curiosity—interesting in its way, but ultimately best left as a relic of a time when the band hadn’t quite figured out what to do with itself. One suspects even they might prefer it quietly forgotten.
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