GRAVITAS

I have no experience of Asia. I just knew it was a prog "super group" with old progers who gathered in the early eighties and recorded some quite popular records, but as I can see here, not so well ranked by prog listeners. Especially this most recent record from 2014, "Gravitas" which featured John Wetton on song and bass, Sam Coulson on guitar, Geoff Downes on keyboards and Carl Palmer on drums. Of these, it's especially Carl Palmer I have heard of before. "Gravitas" is Asia'a twelfth studio album and it has a wonderful cover picture with a dragon wandering behind a birch forest. The "Asia" sign is very stylistic.

When I put the record on, I do enjoyed what I heard. The band seemed so coherent and it was a nice flow in the music. I liked the vocalist and the half-symphonic feeling in this well played and instrumentalistic pop music. I like the clear sounds I heard. I enjoy the majority of these tracks. My favourite is "Russian Dolls" (7/10) which is the most acoustic and where the vocals do it perfect, a thoughtful text too. "Valkyrie" and "Gravitas" are powerful pop songs with a hint of prog in it and they are lovely to listen to. "Heaven help me now" and the sugarsweet "Joe DiMaggio's Glove" (6/10) are also worth hearing. The others aren't so interesting really. The most catchy and almost annoying bit is "I would die for you"(4/10).

As a whole record I consider this thing to work well and I believe they play just the music they want to play. I didn't expected so much after I have seen some reviews but this what over my expectations. I find this record pleasant and I think others will think the same. Three stars!