ANTHOLOGY: THE BEST OF ASIA

This album should carry a government health warning. Although it contains a number of tracks from Asia's "supergroup" period when Wetton, Howe and Palmer were in the band, most of these are not the original tracks. The tracks from that period included here have, for contractual reasons, been re-recorded by the 1990's line up of the band led by Downes and Payne.

Strangely however, the first two tracks ("Heat of the moment" and "only time will tell") are the original versions, although they too appear in re-recorded format again at the end. It seems that the aforementioned contractual issues quickly reared up again, and this version of the album was quickly withdrawn, to be replaced by the more widely available version on which only the re-recorded versions of these tracks appear. While the re- recordings are credible performances, they can never hope to match the originals, and as such, sound like little more than adequate cover versions.

The tracks from the Downes/Payne era are of course originals, and offer a reasonable representation of their work. Two new tracks also appear, one of which is a reworking of the Downes composed "The hunter", originally recorded by GTR.

In all, a bit of a hit and miss collection, which is completely spoiled by the inclusion of re- recordings of Asia's early tracks. In view of its short lifespan though, probably quite collectable.

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