I feel Augeri is an outstanding vocalist in his own right. Like Shadow King, Tall Stories is one of those albums where opinions are sharply divided....a love-it-or-hate-it CD. Like Robert, I was very diappointed by that CD (save a song or two like Wild on the Run) and felt it was nothing special, but you have to give credit where it's due: Augeri is incredible.

Like Dee, I have read many reviews of Journey live with Augeri and they have been unanimously positive. The people who dislike - dare I say despise? - Augeri are Steve Perry die hards, but there really is no remedy for them. They're so fervent in their love of the Duck that they're blinded to Augeri's talent. Like the Portugese guy Hugo who was on the AOR list....he was nuts about the fact that Perry is of Portugese descent and was rabidly adamant about Perry being God and Augeri a hopeless sack of shit. I'm not bashing Perry, he sings like an angel, I just don't understand the fixation with him....

So while I agree with Robert that the songwriting on Tall Stories was below par, that's certainly no way to measure Augeri because I'm sure Schon/Cain handled the bulk of the songwriting on Arival anyway. And if it were a good measure of talent, just look at Perry's shitty solo albums (which have a few exceptions like "You Better Wait" but are pretty putrid overall). He's still an amzing vocalist, he just can't write better-than-average material. Same with Augeri, no reason to hate him. But as long as Perry has die hards in his pocket (mostly housewives enamored with his syrupy Bolton-ish ballads), some people will be prejudiced against Augeri.

As for the Journey - Bad English/Hardline comparison, it's really not fair. Journey has had a far longer track record. Plus, they're considered one of the initiators of AOR along with other old bands like Foreigner, if not *the* main initiator. So Journey is a band with more heritage to the degree that it might be considered sacrilegous not to like them. But I feel that Bad English is a better band.....they're just more consistent. In only two albums, they maintained a better level of songwriting than Journey did. Bad English had an awesome potential and wouln't have ever realeased a just-okay album like Trial By Fire. Don't get me wrong, Jounrey has its marvelous gems, but also its fair share of garbage and medicority. I feel that if Bad English or Hardline, with only 3 albums between them, had been given a chance to develop over time like Journey, they could have been better. I'm not saying they would have been more popular than Journey, just more consistent.

Cheers,
Jack.