Early 80's arena band formed by four legends of progressive rock'n'roll: John Wetton of King Crimson, Steve Howe of Yes, Carl Palmer of ELP, and Geoff Downes of...hmm, the Buggles? Not much of a legend there...anyway, they released two awesome albums in the early 80's, but after that the original members started leaving and they ain't been worth shit since.
"Anthologia: The 20th Anniversary/Geffen Years Collection (1982-1990)"
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In early 2002 I was informed by a reader that Asia had just released all of their first 3½ records on one 2-CD set, complete with rare b-sides. I told him thanks, but I really wasn't interested, since I already had the first two, plus "Ride Easy" and "Daylight" on mp3, and everything else from that era sucked. A year later, obviously I changed my mind.
Why? Hmm, good question. :) Well, I could say that it was to clear up more space on my wall, or that I was never completely satisfied with the quality of those b-side mp3s (which were burned to the original version of Digital Puppy #6.) But really, it was decided the same way I always resolve these dilemmas...which was, waiting to see if a used copy turns up at a good price. And at $15.99 during a 20% off sale, completely sealed, how could I say no??
The biggest problem, of course, is that the original artwork got nicked. And this is a bloody shame, considering how downright COOL the old cover art was! Would it really have been that hard for them to stick in a couple extra full-size photos, instead of those teeny-tiny thumbnails that you can't even read?? So anyway, to remind myself, here are pictures of what the first two albums looked like:
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Anyhoo, this is some deliciously great music, at least up to disc two, track three. :) "Heat of the Moment" had an inventive video, with TV-like boxes of the musicians that flashed across the screen. (The video for "Only Time Will Tell" was pretty lame, though, featuring a gymnast doing backflips over TV sets...who the hell came up with THAT idea??) Alpha was a bit of a letdown, although it did contain my favorite Asia song ever, "Open Your Eyes". (My high school friend was partial to "My Own Time", for some reason.) Although the lyrics to "The Last to Know" could use a little work..."Standing alone in solitude???"
Then Steve Howe quit the band, to be replaced by ex-Krokus guitarist Mandy Meyer. Now, I've been a Krokus fan for some time and I've never even heard of that guy, but no matter. The third album, Astra, was a big steaming pile of CRAP! Then the band broke up for several years, reuniting briefly in 1990 for the pseudo-compilation CD Then & Now (the only Asia album that doesn't begin with "A"), which featured several older tracks plus four new songs. I'd never heard them before getting this set, and while I didn't think they could possibly suck worse than Astra, I was wrong.
Another thing that kinda irks me about this set is that they really SQUEEEEZED the tracks together, totally eliminating the gaps between songs and cutting short a few fades, which has the effect of making them tumble all over each other. On the other hand, looking at the time lengths makes me realize why this was necessary...disc one is 79:58 long!!!
Trivia note: Asia was the best-selling album of 1982, one of the last times I can remember that an actual GOOD album topped the charts. Of course it only sold a measely 2 million copies, since the music industry was in a deep recession, and the only people buying records did so because they enjoyed the music & not because of some brainless fashion trend. Then Michael Jackson came along and ruined it all for everyone.
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