ASIA

One, it isn't prog, if it weren't for the stellar line-up I doubt this would even be on this website and even still, it's under 'Prog Related' for a reason. At a base level I cannot understand how this differentiates from music such as Journey, Boston or Europe. This is arena rock with little to no prog and, I feel as a result of that, the album couldn't deserve more than three stars based on that fact alone.

But here's why it doesn't even deserve that.

1. It's cheesy, beyond cheesy... This is downright laughable at times. This is true not only musically but lyrically as well.

2. The album is a clear attempt to make money, and although there is nothing inherently wrong with that (if I ever chose to became a professional musician I would go into pop simply for the money) the fact still remains. I get that the style of artists change over time and I would never want an artist to play the same style of music over and over again but, at the same time, this is beyond musical change, this is a blatant (and weak) attempt to "get some hits".

3. On top of that, I can't think of an album that better illustrates "why prog went to **** in the 80's". Perhaps this isn't a fair criticism, is this any more the culprit than 90210, Invisible Touch or Love beach?

4. But here's my largest complaint, and the reason that I feel the album most deserves one star, the diversity... This album may be the least diverse "prog" album I have ever heard where every song feels like a cheap copy of the previous song in an attempt to spew out as many hits as possible and while, one or two songs on an album in this style wouldn't go amiss, an entire album of this causes the album to feel dull, repetitive and downright lazy.

There is a real strength in writing a good pop song, but writing the same pop song over and over again and calling it an album is less of a strength. At some level the music is catchy, but just because it's catchy doesn't mean it's good.

As a pop album 2/5 stars

As a prog album 1/5 stars (I would rate it lower if I could).

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