ESCAPE

(Columbia, 1981)

AOR’s shimmering and colossal peak, Escape may have its edges dulled by the familiarity of its best-known songs, yet that should not detract from the album’s majesty. It pulls together everything that is glorious and important about the genre and distills it sublimely. They may have unkindly christened Steve Perry ‘the duck’ after some of those high notes, but the critics are simply eating his dirt. Escape rules. JH

Must hear: Don’t Stop Believin’