ASIA

Asia is one of those 80's albums I found in my dad's small remaining LP collection. He also has Alpha, the second album of the band. He always found the cover of these two records impressive and just straight-up beautiful. And it's true, Roger Dean is a great painter. I'm sure these great covers attracted some people into buying the album back in 1982.

Although Asia is a supergroup composed of 4 well-known prog members (Steve Howe from Yes ; John Wetton from King Crimson ; Geoff Downes from Yes ; and Carl Palmer from ELP), the band itself is not very progressive. It followed the 80's music movement and from the first song, you can easily tell it's a 80's prog-pop style of music. You have to know this before trying the album, as I know some people here got VERY disappointed upon the first couple of songs.

But Asia is not an album that's entirely pop. Some songs (Time Again, Wildest Dreams, Cutting It Fine) contain brilliant passages. You also have the pop classics (Heat of the Moment, Only Time Will Tell), classic love songs but are somewhat enjoyable nonetheless. I personally love the upbeat feeling that "One Step Closer" has.

I won't go into much further detail. If you can tolerate something more simple than general prog, chances are you'll love this album. It's simple, but simple done well.