Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Escape (stylized on the album cover as E5C4P3) is Journey's seventh studio album (and eighth overall), released on July 31, 1981. The album features four hit Billboard Hot 100 singles - "Don't Stop Believin'" (#9), "Who's Crying Now" (#4), "Still They Ride" (#19) and "Open Arms" (#2) - plus rock radio staples like "Stone in Love" and "Mother, Father".

Background and writing [link]

Escape was the band's first album with keyboardist Jonathan Cain who replaced founding keyboardist Gregg Rolie after he left the band at the end of 1980. The album was co-produced by former Lynyrd Skynyrd soundman Kevin Elson and one-time Queen engineer Mike Stone, who also engineered the album.

An Atari 2600 game, Journey Escape, was made based on the album.

Reception [link]

Mike DeGagne of Allmusic 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".^[2] Colin Larkin awarded the album four out of five stars in the 2002 edition of the Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music.^[3] In the 2004 edition of their album guide, Rolling Stone were less favourable, awarding 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.^[4]

In 1988, Kerrang! readers voted Escape the greatest Arena-oriented Rock album of all time.^[5] The following year, the magazine ranked Escape #32 in "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".^[6] A 2000 Virgin poll saw the album voted the 24th greatest Heavy Metal/Alternative Rock album of all time.^[7] In 2001, Classic Rock ranked the album #22 in "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time".^[8] In 2006, the same publication recognized the importance of the album's contribution to popular music in the 1980s by including it in their "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 80s" as one of the twenty greatest albums of 1981.^[9] Originally a progressive rock band, Journey experienced strong resentment from many music critics after they embraced the pop sensibilities of the 1980s with smash hits like "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Open Arms";^[10] Q magazine ranked Escape 15th in its "Records it's OK to Love" in 2006.^[11]

Track listing [link]

All songs written and composed by Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry, and Neal Schon, except where noted. 

Personnel [link]

• Steve Perry - Lead Vocals
• Neal Schon - Guitar, Vocals
• Ross Valory - Bass, Vocals
• Steve Smith - Drums, Percussion
• Jonathan Cain - Keyboards, Piano, Guitar, Vocals

Additional personnel [link]

• Wally Buck - Engineer, Assistant Engineer
• Jon-Erik Birchenough - Management
• Bob Ludwig - Mastering, Remastering
• Jim Welch - Photography, Package Design, Cover Design, Visual Concept
• Brian Lee - Remastering
• Stanley Mouse - Illustrations

Chart positions [link]

The album has been certified 9x Platinum by RIAA since its July 31, 1981 release^[12] (Only their Greatest Hits, at 15x, has sold more copies).

Escape had the fifth highest selling debut of 1981, just behind Bella Donna from Stevie Nicks.

The highest chart position was #1 on the Billboard album chart where it stayed for a week (removing Stevie Nicks' Bella Donna from the top spot), in September 1981.

Album [link]

Billboard Music Charts (North America)

UK Album Chart

Singles [link]

UK Singles Chart

References [link]