ASIA

From such a star-studded line-up I expected better. They were trying to do too much - nine tracks within 45 minutes has constrained artistes like Steve Howe and Carl Palmer - in fact this album is the least memorable of their performances anywhere on vinyl/CD. The saving grace is that basically the 9 tracks are all good songs - punchy, emotive lyrics, passionate vocals and good backing. 'Sole survivor' and 'Wildest dreams' are 2 good examples of what I mean. Based on this 'reasonable' album, I bought the 2 follow-ups, which were dreadful.