Does anybody, apart from Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain, that is, really need seventy three minutes of new Journey music? I ask because at fifteen tracks and that running time I just mentioned, the new album from the band, Freedom, is a hulking beast of a proposition for reviewers and casual observers alike. I’m sure fans will lap it up, of course – just perhaps not all in one sitting, every time…

That said, there is some mighty fine material on offer here on an album that is easily the best thing Schon and Cain have come up with 2001’s Arrival on a song-by-song basis. Strangely enough the band hold back the best material for the second half of the album, culminating in the epic closing track, Beautiful As You Are, a three-movement mini concerto that sees the band touching height of ambition we’ve not seen from them for some while. Arnel Pineda gives his best performance for the band behind the mic throughout, although somewhat cruelly the band allows drummer Deen Castronovo – surely the world’s greatest Steve Perry imitator currently doing the rounds – to sing on the impressively brooding After Glow, thus putting the diminutive Filipino’s range into slightly diminished context.

Schon, as you’d expect, is in scintillating form throughout, delivering some thrilling lead work; from Hendrix to Morello, he’s got them all covered, but pleasingly he reigns in the temptation to keep hammering that point home, preferring instead to deliver a range of impressively restrained performances across his full repertoire. Have a listen to his strutting, funk-laden performance on Let It Rain – which also features some wonderful bass work from American Idol alumnus Randy Jackson (now sadly departed from the band) if you need further confirmation… Mad skillz indeed… But for pure, unadulterated nostalgic pleasure, his solos on You Got The Best of Me take the biscuit – if you’re a long-term fan of the band like me, it’ll bring a tear to the eye, let me tell you!

Best track, the freewheeling, summery United We Stand is Journey in excelsis; dramatic chord progressions, great guitar work punctuated by Cain’s superbly orchestrated keys, and a soaring chorus all combine to remind you why you’ve loved this band for forty-odd years. It’s truly life-affirming stuff, and possibly worth the price of admission on it’s own.

So, a tad overlong for it’s own good, and the production work of Narada Michael Walden (who shares drum duties with Castronovo) is a little less crisp in places than you’d like – but, those two gripes aside, a very welcome and successful return from one of melodic hard rock’s biggest, most iconic names…

Freedom releases on July 8th.