ASIA

Although it may be easy to understand all the hate that is towards Asia's debut album, and Asia in general, this is a great album. It's a great set of musicians making great progressive arena pop rock and making a type of prog rock popular again. The album is very clean and slick sounding, with gorgous vocal harmonies, drizzling keyboard effects, dramatic drumming and excellent guitar flourishes. The album is a prime example of Prog Pop at its best.

1.Heat of the Moment - Easily one of the top cuts from the album. A hard rocking, stomping beat is in place with distorted and crunchy guitar. Clean vocals from John Wetton enter this progressive pop masterpiece at the right moment as the harmonies sung are some of the best i've heard. A classic, and with reason. (10/10)

2.Only Time Will Tell - Another fine classic, but taking a different direction. The song is dominated by heavy keyboard dosages. A soft song, almost ballad rock, but much more heavy in the chorus. The guitar lick that is also played can be described as excellent. The lyrics, though, seem to be repeating the same subject as the opening track. (9/10)

3.Sole Surviver - Great track, though maybe no the same quality as the first two. A different subject matter is always refreshing, but Asia cannot play darker prog as well as they do with happier pop prog. A steady beat is kept with Carl Palmer heavily in pace. This is also one of the more prominate songs were organ is used, to my liking. (7.5/10)

4.One Step Closer - Getting heavily repetitive, and this track is nothing to get excited about. The synthesizer may remind one of Yes on Relayer, though it is much less complex and this song just seems to be uninteresting. Vocals are not very suitable for the track either. (6/10)

5.Time Again - Almost a direct copy of the riff from the Yes album Drama, more specifically Machine Massiah. The track is catchy and dark, but is definatly not of any interest, though the beat is much more upbeat than that of the rest of the album. (7/10)

6.Wildest Dreams - A good track, though sometimes heavily underrated. The steady beat is sure to excite after the dull Time Again. The song has a terrible subject matter, but what do expect from Asia? The music is truely whats important with this song. (8.5/10)

7.Without You - The weakest track on the album, and it also happens to be a softer ballad type of song. The guitar is thin, though played excellent, does not turely energize the song to a full extent. (3.5/10)

8.Cutting it Fine - The first sign of acoustic guitar, and is also played excellently. The track is fairly complex, considering the genre of the music. After the interesting opener, the song settles into the usuall Asia affair. The track could have had a huge potential to be a great acoustic song, but is a usual Asia rocker. (7.5/10)

9.Here Come the Feeling - A personal favourite from the album. Heavy synthesizer dominates the song, as the guitar played ever so excellently by Howe is played so excellently. The vocal harmonies throughout are excellent and much better than the rest of the album. The music truely sounds fresh to me. (9/10)

Though there are a few songs that are uninteresting and are worth nothing to the album, the music is excellent, lush, and very full considering the time of music. No wonder this was a 8x platinum album! 4 stars for some excellent music that brought a boost into Progressive Rock, which needed a good push to get the ball rolling again.