HEAT OF THE MOMENT: THE VERY BEST OF ASIA 1982-1990

Asia was the first progressive band of the eighties to have a million selling album and their debut was one of the most selling debutalbums ever recorded. Asia wasn't just a new band, the band members all had a glorious past (ELP, King Crimson, Yes). The first album still is their best. Their version of progressive rock was suitalble for airplay on radio and MTV. Songs like "Heat of the moment" and "Only time will tell" may have sound to commercial for proggy ears, other tracks showed the virtuosity of its members. After the first album the sound was getting even more commercial but the massive symphonic sound was still enjoyable. When the band was recording their third album "Astra", Steve Howe was no longer in the band and his absence was noticable even if the ex-Krokus man Mandy Meyer did a pretty good job. After "Astra" which had its moments of glory the band disbanned itself due to poor album sales. The band reformed in 1989 without a guitar player and recorded 4 new songs for a compilation album "Now & then" but soon the writing was on the wall.

If you're looking for a good compilation of eighties Asia, You'll be better off with Anthologia which contains the 3 full albums with all bonus tracks the band officially recorded in that period of time. The tracklist of this compilation lacks some important Asia-gems like "after the war", "countdown to zero" or "without you" and some of the tracks which do appear are shorter than the album versions. For fans of progressive rock, it's very important to get the full track cause this is where the most interesting things happen. Although this compilation does contain 3 excellent B sides ("daylight,"Lying to yourself" and "ride easy") , which were previously unreleased. Not for true fans of Asia but it can appeal to young listeners who didn't know the music of this band before.