ALPHA

They became master of regressive rock and show you the way to the endless spiral downwards. I was always one not to consider this band as prog , and hated those gigantic musicians to be doing such a run-of-the-mill soup , but nowadays , I realize that they must've needed to put the soup on their dinner table to feed their families . In French one might talk of Rock Alimentaire;-)

Actually does this album fare any better than the previous one. No! Actually , with the surprise (even if not pleasant) of their debut album gone , this album is even more deceiving. The same type of sophisticated rock aimed clearly at some nostalgia-stricken fans of the 70's golden era (the Roger Dean artwork sleeve is one of those "attrape-nigaud" - a con) out for landmarks in the new musical landscape of the 80's.

Little more than fillers after a few noticeable radio-friendly slightly proggish FM rock hits to have been aired. Their first two albums sold in fair quantities at the time , but it was because of lack of real offer. Marillion was still a best kept secret , Yes was dormant , Genesis was pop and others had folded.

The heat goes on

"Alpha" is the second album by the "supergroup", and once again comprises entirely of shorter, more commercially orientated songs than those of the members' previous groups. The album is very much a follow on from the band's debut album, but benefits from the famous four knowing each other that bit better, and thus working more cohesively together.

John Wetton's "The smile has left your eyes" is easily the best track, The song is essentially a power ballad, which would not sound out of place on a Boston album. it's interesting that as a mark of respect, the band will not perform it in his absence, but Wetton regularly includes it in his live set.

There are many other highlights throughout the album. "The heat goes on" and "Don't cry" were excellent and highly commercial singles, but virtually any of the tracks could have been selected for single release.

"Open your eyes" closes the album in a slightly more progressive manner. It opens with a segment of "Mars" from the planets suite by Holst before bursting into a supremely powerful and melodic number. The track has a great final section, which builds to the instrumental finale.

As has been said many times before, Asia do not make prog as we know it, despite the pedigree of the members. This is first class stuff nonetheless.

This record is slightly sentimental, perfect for the young intellectual teenagers we were, dreaming of some comprehensive girls and some good jobs to do as a living. When I listen again to this nowadays, I always think about the 80's, recalling how enthusiastic we were about our future! Actually when you listen to the melodic and modern epic keyboards, to the catchy and addictive lead & backing vocals, to the melodic electric guitars and the modest drums, you just say to yourself: "it was a privilege for us to have such a great record to wholeheartedly listen". This record was like a model, it was truly appreciated since we were beginning to meet girls. It was not rare to notice many garage bands try to play their songs. In order of comparison, let's mention the prog band Pallas sounds a bit like them. All the instruments on Alpha form a solid ensemble, and you just listen to the music as a whole. One may qualify this album as being accessible, and the songs are not extremely progressive. The music is rather simple, barely progressive, and definitely not complex.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The followup to "Asia"'s eponymous debut turned out to be just plain awlpha. As progressive rock fans dance their happy little dance of "I told you so," let's examine Alpha's flaws: Carl PALMER and Steve HOWE don't write any of the material, the vocal harmonies of their debut are replaced by processed multitracking of John WETTON's voice, almost every song is written from the perspective of a man who just broke up with his girlfriend (yippee!), the arrangements are schmaltzy, and the album was recorded in Canada. Steve HOWE, whose athletic guitar work was a minor revelation on "Asia", pulls up lame on "Alpha" -- he's almost a nonentity. The same could be said for Carl PALMER, who is reduced to 4/4 beats on tracks like "Never in a Million Years" that just mush the arrangements into non-potable pulp. But it's WETTON and the appropriately named Geoff Downes who shoulder the responsibility for "Alpha"'s failures: the songs are made from self-pitying dreck. Just a sampler of "Alpha"'s bits is enough to drag you down: "How can I offer sympathy? / When all I feel is pure rejection" (from "The Last to Know"), "The smile has left your eyes / Now there's no one to sympathize" (from "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes)," "Can you give me reasons / Why I made this sacrifice?" (from "Eye to Eye"), ad nauseum.

In retrospect, any album that begins by admonishing the listener "Don't cry" is probably destined to disappoint. Lest "Alpha" be regarded as a total waste, there are a few tracks like "Eye to Eye," "Midnight Sun" and "Open Your Eyes" that suggest some of the old magic is still there. However, the enigma of "Alpha" is that so little magic remained -- after all, these are the same four guys and the same producer that created the multiplatinum "Asia". It's clear that the band was becoming a vehicle for WETTON and Downes, who manage to drive the band into the toilet with one clean jerk of the wheel. But they were largely responsible for Asia's original success, so what gives? Theories abound, none of them pretty, all pointing squarely to Canada. In an odd move, only the cassette version features the track "Daylight" (apparently to weight it down in the event that it's jettisoned from moving cars).

This album is more pop than their first album. It seems that Steve Howe was the biggest influence in the little progressive sound of the previous album. It seems that record label executives wanted this album to be more pop oriented to secure competition with other bands of other labels which were in the fad and in the market of the pop rock style of the eighties (Journey, Foreigner, etc.). So, Steve Howe`s compositions were out of this album, destined to B-sides of the singles, and the producer (which also worked with Journey) and the record label thought that Wetton and Downes could be the leaders in songwriting and in the band. (These are only my speculations; it is only my opinion).So, the quality for prog fans wasn`t the same as the previous album. Which saves this album from being bad is the performance of the songs by very good musicians. Mainly, Steve Howe`s guitars are very good again, like Carl Palmer`s drums. The sound of the album is centered in Geoff Downes` keyboards and John Wetton`s vocals (which are also very good but very pop rock oriented).There are a lot of echoes and effects added to the final sound of the songs, maybe "overproduced". But this album was still better than their next, "Astra", recorded without Steve Howe. The best songs of this "Alpha" album are: "Don`t Cry", "The Smile has left your eyes", "The heat goes on", "Eye to eye", "Midnight sun", "Open your eyes" and "Daylight" (this last one included in the cassette version).

Maybe 2½ stars... The progressive giants of the 70's managed to do some very well produced pop on the start of 80's. Good compositions and playing of fine musicians wrapped up by cool artwork of Roger Dean. I recall that I was pleased by some of the tracks as a teenager, but today some elements on this record seem banal in a way, and I haven't listened this for some time. It's a worthy album still if you like this kind of stuff (minority in this site?) or are interested of the careers of these musicians.

Man alive, did I wear a groove into the vinyl album of this one when I was a kid. Unlike the majority, I preferred the follow-up to their debut. Cannot be taken as a prog or progressive album, however. Sure, it has progressive moments, but it's more like a Journey album than a King Crimson or Yes album.

Side one still gets cranked in the car from time to time...and it's not because of the hits "Don't Cry" or "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes". I much prefer "My Own Time (I'll Do What I Want)" and "Never In A Million Years". Lush mixing and layering makes for a wall of sound...especially from Geoff Downes.

"The Last To Know" is a very sappy ballad; but, I've always liked it. A tender intro by Downes, Wettons amazing vocals that are powerful even when softly spoken. Palmers drumming is the highlight, though. I hang onto this one purely for nostalgic reasons. The music is out of date and it's lambasted by critics and fans alike, but the music gave me a lot of enjoyment as a kid...and it still does.

When this band was formed I did not expect that it's gonna play something "prog". It's the same expectation I imposed on GTR which basically the project by which two guitar maestro wanted to play together in more relax fashion - out from prog vein. It was the case with ASIA. With this view in mind, I got no problem enjoying Asia first album which in fact "Time Again" and "Wildest Dream" became my morning call favorite. When this second album came out, I fell in love with "True Colors" (track 8). I did not know exactly why I liked it - it's probably I liked because the kind of combination of hard rock with symphonic style. I especially enjoyed it when the vocal sing "True colors .!!!" followed with great guitar work combined with keyboard. I repeatedly play True Colors especially when I need an energizer of the day - to lift up my spirit and emotion. Great track. The other track which also favored me was "The Last To Know" which has great keyboard work.

Well, I think that's exactly the strong point of this second album by Asia: the combination of symphonic keyboard work with hard rock music with sometimes it sounds like pop song. For example: "Don't Cry" which is definitely a pop rock song. But when it is presented with a combined keyboard and guitar work, I can feel something different with any typical pop rock song. The ballad "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" is also an accessible song to enjoy for most people.

Through this second album Asia has proved their existence as a band with a hard rock as their main style combined with symphonic touch through keyboard and guitar work. It's a good album to enjoy and it has become one of Asia album that finally I converted from cassette to CD because I cannot afford for not having this CD in my rock collection. It's too good to be missed, I think. This is one of my favorite rock albums. All members of the band play excellently here. I like Wetton voice, Howe guitar style and Downes keyboard. Keep on proggin' ..!

Progressively yours, GW

Asia’s second suffers from a one-dimensional contribution by John Wetton who provided all the lyrics, although Geoff Downes is given co-credit on all but the cheesy ballad “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes”.

This is a much more commercial album than the debut, which was itself a pretty sanitized work. Alpha generated five hit singles in the American radio market, one fewer than the debut, including the b-side radio hit “Daylight”. The novelty of reconstituted 70s proggers trying to compete with younger and less talented (but more visually appealing) new-wave and pop entertainers was fast wearing thin by 1983. Asia would yield only three more hit singles after this, and their albums would continue to slide in sales rankings until they disappeared altogether. Steve Howe would get while the getting was good and leave following this album to form the just-as-cheesy GTR, followed by a stint in the underachieving Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe.

The frustration with this album is of course due to these guys all being consummate musicians who were certainly capable of putting together a truly impressive piece of art, and should have had the capital clout even in the artistically-castrated 80s to do so. But they chose to refine their sound even further and serve up a record executive’s dream in 1983 – a hit album that promised appeal to old and new fans alike, without exactly satisfying either.

There are a few interesting moments here, most notably Howe’s guitar and Downes’ keyboards during an all-to-brief instrumental passage on “The Heat Goes On”, which are quite good. Carl Palmer is his usual pompous self on drums throughout the album (and I mean that in a good way), but he just feels like he’s on autopilot for the most part, and especially on “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes” and “Never in a Million Years”. His flourishes on the album-ending “Open Your Eyes” are the most pronounced contribution to the album.

Steve Howe seems to have already checked his interest and contributions at the door, offering perfunctory performances, with the exception of the aforementioned “Open Your Eyes”, which in my mind is the only really interesting track with its slightly mystic feel, emotive keyboards, and innovative guitar.

The only other songs worth a mention are not in a positive sense. “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes” is a power ballad by Wetton that even in 1983 I thought would have sounded better covered by Barry Manilow (and I don’t mean that in a good way). “The Last to Know” also falls into this category, except I picture the really angsty guy in Tears for Fears singing this one. “Midnight Sun” is the most forgettable song the band would ever record, although it is the only one that doesn’t appear to have a relationship with some woman as a theme. But at least the band gets credit for a very tasteful album cover.

Overall this is a definite step down from the debut Asia album, which I actually felt was about the best we could all hope for considering the musical landscape of the time. While I was quite happy to pick up the first album and played it incessantly, this second one is still in pristine in my collection simply because it hasn’t spent the time on the turntable that the first one did. By the time this came out we had Marillion to give us new hope for a brighter musical future, and Asia no longer held that promise. As a result, the band was largely relegated to endless lineup changes and nostalgic live compilations, and this would be the last Asia studio album I ever bought. Two stars.

peace

Asia's follow up to their multi-million selling eponymous debut was Alpha. Alpha, in many regards, was much like their debut. However, it showed even more of a leaning towards commercial music, particularly with the use of more ballads. It received mostly indifferent criticism at the time, didn't fare as well on the charts or on the radio, but still managed to reach platinum status. Apparently John Wetton was either forced out of the band due to poor sales (how is platinum status poor?) or quit (according to the band). He would get replaced by Greg Lake for a famous concert they had in Japan in December 1983. Lake would leave in early 1984 while Wetton returned for their next album called Astra in 1985.

Again, this is AOR music comparable to the likes of Boston or Journey. It was mostly the product of John Wetton and Geoff Downes, with Steve Howe and Carl Palmer being mostly left out of the writing process. This caused some tensions in the band, even causing some fans to be disappointed in their supposed treating of Howe and Palmer as similar to session musicians. Alpha might actually fare pretty well on a mainstream rock site, but at a prog site such as this, it just doesn't have any music on it worthy to make note of. Two stars. For collectors and fans only.

Review 52, Alpha, Asia

After a fiery, brilliant debut, this supergroup appears to have somewhat burned out. While there is a more progressive edge, and it is less of a target for PA AOR-hunter squads, it is simply not as solid an album. I have to admit that I'm probably not the fairest judge, since my first listen was during a time of moderate personal stress. Nonetheless, it's grown on me, and the weak points are relatively few. Recommended to the majority of people who are interested in really listening to an album rather than giving it a spin and characterising it.

Don't Cry is a pretty typical 'AOR'-with-musicianship single. Neat drumming from Palmer, and some good playing from Howe. The real issue is the lyrics, which are terrible, and preferably ignored or mocked. The slightly whiny block-choral Don't Cry is also a bit erk. However, the piece as a whole isn't actually that poor.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is a more balladic piece, with Wetton's bass standing out a bit more, and an odd keyboard riff thing. The lyrics, again, are very forgettable (thankfully), and again they're compensated for by the musicianship and nice additions within the AOR context. A very odd couple of escalations at an almost appropriate time.

Never In A Million Years starts off very well in the Sole Survivor tradition with typical percussion bass and disgustingly addictive guitar. The chorus is a bit of a let down, with a couple of negligible keyboard touches making for most of the potential interest. The following verses again are well-backed by Howe and Downes.

My Own Time (I'll Do What I Want To) is pretty good. Relaxed vocals from Wetton, as well as his typical shouty mass-chorus-vocal with a superb Howe guitar. The keys work very nicely and carefully, adding a level of subtlety I wouldn't really expect from an Asia song. It's unfortunate that the piece drags on too long at the end, despite the solid Howe soloing.

The Heat Goes On begins with a type-cast melodramatic piano. A catchy bass-drums backs it, while key and guitar edges fire off everywhere. Wetton and Palmer also escape their mould enough to keep a definite interest. Solid vocals and more digestible lyrics than the previous few. At about 2.30 Wetton provides a surprising (if brief) bass solo and Howe bursts into a fiery burst of soloing. Geoff Downes, though often derided, also provides a killer solo (on an organ and with a killer tone). Great piece.

Eye To Eye is a potent rock piece, using Steve Howe's backing vocals to good effects, and with a surprisingly well-ranged vocal from Wetton. His lyrics are now basically up to scratch. A more quirky piano/keys riff even suggests Gentle Giant. Howe and Palmer, as always, are great, and Geoff Downes provides a very progressive edge to the piece. The ending is a little weak, with a fade, but that's forgivable.

The Last To Know is probably my last choice for the album. The keyboard-based sound of the opening doesn't really pay off to well, feeling a little lacking in energy. Wetton's vocals don't really suit the stripped back sound that well, either. The chorus is pretty good, with everyone showing solid musicianship. The instrumental bridge makes a much better use of the keys, when assisted by Palmer's wonderful drumming. Again, a lyrical mess, but I don't really care.

True Colors is the standard tens-opening-moves-onto-rocking-chorus song. Again, blistering performances from Howe and Palmer. It does move into slightly odder song structures, even if I don't think it really payed off, and despite the rather simple additions of Downes, the piece as a whole works quite well.

Midnight Sun is a more upbeat piece, feeling more like something you'd expect from later ELP than the Wetton pedigree. I'm not entirely sure of my opinion on this one, as the experience can differ on various listens. The guitar work and drumming is always superb, but occasionally I don't think they really hit the positive atmosphere in the right way.

Open Your Eyes is probably the album's high, with solid performances from all involved, some very nice vocal effects in classic 80s style, as well as a bit of pseudo-Beach Boys fun. The keyboards are highly atmospheric, the lyrics decent. The high point is, however, the transition from the vocal refrain 'Open Your Eyes' to a full-blown extended instrumental section with simply stunning playing from everyone, especially Palmer and Howe. One of my all-time favourite songs, and certainly into my revised top 100 later in the year.

If you thought the first album was disgusting AOR and should be turned into firewood, you're a lost cause. Otherwise, get this one. Carl Palmer is still in absolutely top form on the album, and Howe is no slouch either, so a must-have for fans of those two (though I suppose only if you like the more fiery and aggressive Howe playing). Naturally, all music like this tends to sound better when louder, so, if you don't at first get it, try again at a higher volume. If you're not familiar with Asia, I'd start with the debut, as if you don't like that, I wouldn't recommend Alpha. Though it wasn't love on first listen (probably due to the sheer ill timing of 'never in a million years...'), it has massively grown on me, and is a great album in its own right. Four stars, not a masterpiece, but at times simply blow-away rock with solid musicians.

Rating: Four Stars Favourite Track: Open Your Eyes

Edit: Thought a three was maybe a better acknowledgement that there are a couple of very mediocre tracks and it's not quite as amazing in the good bits or on the vocal front as the debut was.

Alpha is the second album from supergroup Asia. The lineup which consist of Geoffery Downes ( Yes) on keyboards, Steve Howe ( Yes) on guitar, Carl Palmer ( The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Emerson, Lake & Palmer) on drums and John Wetton ( King Crimson, UK, Uriah Heep) on bass and vocals is unchanged since the self titled debut which was released in 1982 the year before the release of Alpha.

The music unfortunately has changed a bit towards the worse. The debut had some enjoyable moments where you could hear that these four musicians where once some of the most prolific people on the British prog rock scene. I don´t care much for the debut but it had a few progressive moments, that were at least partially enjoyable. Alpha sees Asia digging even deeper into AOR symphonic rock territory. The songs are now even more simplistic and plastered with commercial sounding keyboard parts and especially memorable pop choruses. I won´t point out any song on this album for being either worse or better than the others as all the songs melt together into one big pile of plastic music. The cheesy lyrics are just horrible too. Banale pop lyrics written for an audience who doesn´t demand anything else but girl loves boy lyrics.

The musicianship is of course good, but nothing here really demands good musicians maybe except for the choir arrangements which are well done but too cheesy.

The production is thin. An eighties nightmare. Well I´m being a bit harsh here as I would normally love a production like this but put in the context of the weak songs the production fails.

The coverart signals prog rock which is false marketing.

Well there isn´t really anything I like about this album and I will give this a small 2 star rating. I would love to give this one a 1 star rating but as there is nothing wrong with the quality of the compositions and it´s really just a matter of personal taste if you like this music or not. I can´t recommend this to prog lovers though.

The first, the second, and the last (in a way)

Alpha is the name of the first letter of the Greek alphabet (and has, of course, given its name to the very alphabet itself). But despite what is implied by this title of this album, Alpha was not Asia's first album, but their second. It was also the last to feature the four original members (until the reunion in the new millennium).

One problem I had with the band's self-titled debut album was that its nine songs were too similar to each other having the result that there was very little variation on that album. Alpha is much better in that respect and benefits greatly from having more variation with more different types of songs. However, the opening Don't Cry is possibly the band's worst song ever! The lyrics are especially unimaginative and extremely cheesy; 'Dont cry now that I've found you, Don't cry take a look around you, Don't cry it took so long to find you, Do what you want, but little darling please dont cry' Yuck! But, as I said earlier, it gets better. As a side note: the recent live DVD Fantasia - Live In Tokyo features a different version of this song that I think is much better than this original version.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is an example one type of song that I felt was missing on the debut. Again, the lyrics are rather syrupy and cheesy, but it is a nice ballad anyway that lends diversity to the album.

The rest of the album is indeed very good and among Asia's better material, at least by this line up of the band. The Heat Goes On features a very nice organ solo by Geoff Downes and Open Your Eyes, the album's longest track, is possibly also the most progressive one. All this amounts to making Alpha possibly my favourite Asia studio album despite some rather cheesy passages.

Asia seems to be a much hated band among some Prog fans, but Alpha is not at all as bad as these people say, but it is also far from excellent. Once again there is a beautiful cover art by the great Roger Dean who seems to have adopted his style to the 80's just as well as the involved musicians did.

Recommended for people who do not mind the 80's sound and can accept some commercial aspects in Prog.

This is the second album from supergroup Asia. Right off the bat, I warn you this isn't prog so don't expect it just because of all the familiar faces in prog. If you liked the first album, you will like this just the same. The music is all of the same caliber, and has similar song layout. Like I said, this isn't prog, so there are no long songs or complexity, so the hidden talent of the band doesn't show much at all. All of the songs are incredible pop rock songs (with the exception of a few). My favorite is probably THE SMILE HAS LEFT YOUR EYES. I'll recommend this to any pop rock fan and even prog fan. If you can shake the image that these are prog musicians, you'll be pleasently surprised. 5/5 for pop rock, 4/5 for prog.

Asia's other classic album

The second recording with the classic lineup (third one will be in 2008!) before Steve Howe's departure, and also ASIA's last enjoyable album. Alpha is in the vein of its predecessor. However, whereas the self-titled debut was quite homogeneous, this one is unequal. It features more commercial poppy songs, without the strength of the melodies of the former album, as well as catchy tracks with some prog elements, more present this time.

The beginning of "Alpha" is quite soapy and can foreshadow the worst. Fortunately, powerful songs follows ("Never In A Million Years", "The Heat Goes On", "True Colors"...). Some contains even more progressive touches and spacey moments ("Eye To Eye", "Midnight Sun", "Open Your Eyes") than in the first opus. The disc ends on an epic fantasy ambiance driven by keyboards and guitar. Not bad, but the overall is irregular.

With "Alpha", ASIA follows the pop-prog path carved in their first album, but going a little more cheesy. The year after, Steve Howe will leave the band. Further albums won't be able to match the quality of the first two and ASIA's career won't be the same. Anyway, "Alpha" should please anyone who enjoyed the first record.

A very worthy follow-up to the ultra-successful "Asia"!

And in my opinion, even better than the first one... Ok, the music is still far from what we could hope os the union of such musicians, but this time the result is a bit more symphonic, and less commercial. The chorus are so pompous like before, but the arrangements and some tracks are not so friendly for the masses like the band's debut. Just hear the great The Heat Goes On keyboard solo.

This time, I think the protagonist of the album (apart from Wetton's voice...) is the Steve Howe's guitar work. He is really wonderful in this album, while in the first time he sounded a bit diminished between the Downes's keyboards and the powerful Carl Palmer's drums. He really shines on guitar in tracks like My Own Time, where he plays a wonderful melody in the verses, and in the beautiful Midnight Sun solo.

The other fact that makes this album better than its predecessor for me, is the production... Maybe it's not so polished like in "Asia", but it's more direct, more organic, and not so artificial. Wetton's voice doesn't sounds perfect, like some drums and arrangements, but this make the album more natural, and not so factory sounding like the first one. Nevertheless, the Asia style is still here, with the magnificient chorus like Never in a Million Years and The Last to Know.

Best tracks: Never in a Million Years (I love the chorus, despite it's very commercial...), The Heat Goes On (specially for the great Downes keyboards solo...), The last to Know (one fo the jewels of the album, very sweet and with another great chorus...) and Midnight Sun (maybe my favourite Asia song... Wonderful verses, and a priceless guitar solo)

Conclusion: "Alpha" is not so commercial like the first band release, and thanks to its natural and less artificial production, sounds better in my opinion. Another good fact of the album is the good Steve Howe's work, having more protagonist than before... Maybe it's still a bit dissapointing hearing this great musicians making music that has almost nothing to do with prog, but if you like 80's AOR in the vein of Journey or Saga, then "Alpha" is an album made for you. Just like the band's debut, but even better in my opinion... Very good!

My rating: ***1/2

And cover looked so promisingly But then, Don't Cry and I knew, that this is arena rock. Or ARO (live version of AOR). Which offers nothing I like. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes offers at least melody, if nothing more. I know that these musicians should be skilled masters. But this is one of these rare moments, when you realize, that they have skills, or in the other words, they have power to play better, but they don't want to (I suppose) , thinking that normal listener will be satisfied with more mundane rock, absolutely nothing proggy at all. And that Heat Goes On is true, especially this heat from crazed audience, who's primary concern is to head-bang a little bit. I sometimes want it too, but because I've decided not only to rate how I like it (not much), but also how good album is, so I can say that guitar solos are too short, vocals average, keyboards good at times.

3(-) for an Asia album, which makes me quite confused.

As much as this reviewer loves Yes, John Wetton's work with King Crimson and Steve Howe's guitar, ASIA will always be seen as the corporate cheese-rock cop-out super-group who produced a string of dire albums through the 1980's and forever stained the resume's of all involved. After the brutal musical genocide that is otherwise known as Punk-Rock mistakes were made, and only the brave or the very successful were still producing straight-ahead progressive rock. YES had splintered into several squabbling factions, Robert Fripp had dumped KING CRIMSON and America was being taken over by a clutch of slick 'stadium rock' groups such as FOREIGNER, JOURNEY and BOSTON, all of whom were riding the dollar-paved highway to sell-out super-stardom. With one canny eye on the fat American market Wetton and Howe teamed up with vocalist-and-keyboardist Geoff Downes, formerly of THE BUGGLES and YES, and also brought in the Palmer from EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER(first name Carl) on drums. ALPHA was released in 1983, but failed to emulate the huge success of the group's eponymously-titled debut of a year earlier. The hackneyed formula was pretty much the same - big-ballads, fantasy-trimmings, Roger Dean cover, synth rock - just this time around the buying public didn't seem so keen. The line-up would soon chop-and-change, and the group eventually became merely a footnote of rock history when obviously something much more grand was planned by those involved. They were a super-group after all. It's hard to draw comparisons with other groups as ASIA'S brand of faux-prog classic-rock sounds very weak when compared to the nearest touchstones. And it sounds positively awful when paired with FOREIGNER's excellent '4' album, 'Escape' by JOURNEY or FLASH'S eponymous debut, albums that no doubt shared ASIA'a intended musical ambitions. Over-produced and glossy and now extremely-dated, ASIA were a commercially-successful but critically-disdained group who, for some, summed-up all that was pompous and over-indulgent about 1980's rock music. Considering the group's heritage, it's a damn shame. This is as far from 'Fallen Angel' , 'Lucky Man' or 'Roundabout' as one can get. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

Scarce listenings from Asia's early albums have created the impression to me that this is not an exceptional band, but maybe worth investigating further for particular albums. Now I seriously doubt that "Alpha" is one of them.

With the exception of the simplistic, pop (childish would fit better here) approach of the opening track, the rest of the compositions are not bad as such. Without any glimpses of progressive music (not that this is a bad thing per se), the band executes its AOR-based compositions quite pleasantly. The album is, however, dominated by a large number of indifferent ballads or power-ballads - 4, if I have counted well - without a single memorable moment, even in the relatively better-worked tracks (i.e. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes).

Fortunately, there are a few moments where the compositional abilities of the famous members (only) start to appear. The Heat Goes On is probably the best track, with a solid verse and melodic chorus, careful riff-work and pieces of interesting keyboard and guitar soloing. Never in a Million Years is based on its catchy verse and decent mid-tempo rocking rhythm section, despite suffering from a rather cheesy chorus. True Colors is the last worth-mentioning composition, which, starting from a nice keyboard passage, slowly builds up to a bombastic and catchy chorus; this was the first track that caught my attention from the album.

The biggest problem I see with this release is not the absence of innovative musicianship, but the lack of strong melodies; an integral part of any good AOR album. Unless someone is a devoted fan of bands like Boston, Journey etc, I can not see how he/she would rank this album higher than the level of mediocrity (that it probably deserves).

The follow up to the massive hit debut album, the wheels fell off the bandwagon with this one. It still did well commercially, although not as well as the first, and the cracks in the band's unity appeared, leading to years of feuds. In addition, the production makes it sound as if the band are playing down a telephone line from Antarctica.

Don't Cry is, of course, the Heat Of The Moment type single to set things off. It isn't as good, and is bland without being insulting.

There are, however, still some magical moments and songs on the album. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes is a grandiose piece of pomp rock, and Wetton and Downes are magnificent on it. Actually, therein lies half of the problem with this. Steve Howe has been virtually produced and engineered out of proceedings, so whereas for the debut he was clear as a bell and by far the most important contributor, with this, and this track in particular, you have to struggle to hear him clearly. No wonder he left.

Never In A Million Years is a very good pop rock track, and once again dominated by Geoff Downes parp parping away. Likewise My Own Time is a fine pomp rock track, with a cracking chorus which sounds even better singing along after more than a few beers!

The highlight for me, though, is Midnight Sun, which is a glorious track, and amongst the finest any of them ever put down on vinyl. Sensitive, well played, emotional, it is a great track which puts you in mind of the fact that you knew the band were so much more capable than much of what is included on this album. It is also, and this is, of course, no coincidence, Steve Howe's finest contribution, featuring some incredible work.

Pardon the pun, but this album is no progression from the first. It was an attempt to create more of the same, and that was a mistake. Whereas the first one was a masterpiece of its kind, this one is merely a good rock album, and one that clearly would have benefited from the band taking a lot more time over all aspects of writing, recording, and playing.

Three stars for this. A good album, but one which has non essential written all over the wondrous Roger Dean cover creation.

In my early teens I listened to LP's of my sister and brother. She had both Asia (the 1982 debut) and its follower. The debut was a strong pleasure - and one of the earliest "favourite albums" of mine - but this one never made a deep impact. (The Roger Dean cover is equally excellent, though.) It lacks the progressive tone of its big brother and sounds exactly what it was: hastily written, utterly commercial, cheesy, pompous arena rock with rather simple song structures, built around powerful vocals of John Wetton. I bet Steve Howe had very little to do with compositions.

'Don't Cry' is a fast-tempo hit with a catchy chorus, 'The Smile Has Left Your Eyes' a power- ballad with a bleeding heart chorus that makes me want to strangle Wetton, and the rest of the album follows the same formula. The two tracks that I have the most positive memory of, are 'Midnight Sun' (its spacey,dreamy emotion I can better relate to: in Finland we do have a midnight sun in midsummer) and 'Open Your Eyes' which is the longest track (6:26) and in addition to the usual chorus-orientation has a more mystic section too.

Heartily recommended to 80's commercial arena rock lovers. In that field alone this is a strong and well played album.

I've never actually been much of a fan of this particular release in the past, seeing that Alpha was not as strong of a record in the highlights department as the solid debut album. Luckily I've given it a few more chances recently and now I have actually began to see some of its charm.

In retrospect, it's actually pretty easy for me to point out my major problem with this release --- the album opening Don't Cry is far from the mighty ! On top of that, none of these ten tracks feature highlights that could measure to crowd pleasers like Only Time Will Tell, Sole Survivor, Wildest Dreams etc... which is the main reason why this album wasn't anywhere as successful as the band's mighty debut album.

Having covered most of the main negatives, let's talk about why this actually is not as bad of an album as I previously have thought it to be. Even if the tracks aren't a colorful at first sight, there is definitely some growth potential to some of these compositions. To me it would have made more sense to revise the order of this album by swapping the positions of Don't Cry and the far superior (potential opener) The Heat Goes On. I would also would have liked to move some of the more prominent tracks of side two to the center of the album, I'm talking especially about Eye To Eye, True Colors and Open Your Eyes, the latter never really made much sense to me as the closing number.

Overall, there were quite a few nice numbers on this record that do add some momentum to this album, the only problem is that it takes time for the tracks to grow on the listener. We're actually talking about valuable time that could have been spent listening to more ambitious music! Still, if you have the time and effort then Alpha does have some charm to it.

**** star songs: The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (3:13) The Heat Goes On (5:00) Eye To Eye (3:14) The Last To Know (4:40) True Colors (3:53) Open Your Eyes (6:26)

*** star songs: Don't Cry (3:41) Never In A Million Years (3:46) My Own Time (I'll Do What I Want) (3:46) Midnight Sun (3:48)

Released a year on from the self-titled debut, Asia's 1983 album `Alpha' saw the supergroup - comprised of John Wetton (King Crimson), Carl Palmer (E.L.P), Geoff Downes and Steve Howe (both of Yes) delivering another round of streamlined and gutsy arena pop/rock with very slight progressive rock flourishes. The debut offered snappy proggy playing worked into catchy rock/pop arrangements, but much of the light progressive touches have already been removed, meaning that most of the ten tracks here are fairly straight-forward and often AOR styled. But even if the production is a bit stale and clinical, and you avoid reading too much into the clichéd and `woe-is-my-relationship' lyrics, there's still cool playing trying to get through, and at worst it's a reliable collection of solid rock tunes.

Steve Howe seems almost totally absent from the opening two numbers, just providing middling playing that doesn't stand out at all. They're John Wetton driven tracks, the basic but brash rocker `Don't Cry' that improves on repeated listens, and `The Smile Has Left Your Eyes', a slushy power ballad. Thankfully the album starts to pick up a bit more steam from here. `Never In A Million Years' has more powerful chugging guitar driven verses with nice group harmonies in the chorus. The fourth track `My Own Time' is the first time on the disc that band seems to come to life, with rambunctious drumming from Carl Palmer, Howe starting to take flight, and the boisterous chorus is catchy and chest-beating. `The Heat Goes On' is pretty mindless, but there's a foot-tapping up-tempo strut charging it, with an aggressive and tasty Hammond organ run from Geoff Downes in the middle.

`Eye to Eye' opens the second side, racing through in just over three minutes, energized by slightly loopy and manic synths and rippling electric guitar duels, with memorable falsetto vocals from Wetton at the end of each line. `The Last To Know' is a solemn piano ballad with a power chorus. Howe seems to be about to erupt in guitar solo flight after a bit of grunt throughout it, but never really takes off. `True Colours' is heavy with thick synths and bashing ferocious drumming with a bombastic chorus. Despite having verses that are a little dull, `Midnight Sun' more than delivers with it's emotive and dreamy chorus, and finally Howe lets rip with an inspired lengthier guitar solo. At over six minutes, `Open Your Eyes' is the longest piece here, and its definitely the best showcase for the talent of the four players. An upbeat and memorable joyous chorus repeats around colorful synth washes, a driving beat and wailing guitar fills, and this time you can almost hear Wetton's chunky bass trying to break through.

In all honesty, even the best songs on `Alpha' probably aren't half as catchy and strong as anything off the debut album, nor is the same energy and need to impress present from there either. It's kind of `more of the same', just not quite as good, and the fairly cold, flat production certainly doesn't do much to impress. Asia are an easy target of ridicule for many prog fans, but if you don't mind well-played straight-forward rock by a bunch of first- rate musicians and you're forgiving of the style they chose to play in, there's still worthwhile music to enjoy on a surface level throughout `Alpha'.

Two and a half stars, barely rounded up to three.

Unlike Asia's self-titled debut, "Alpha" cannot be let away from the proghead-driven hate bandwagon so easily. While "Asia" retained at least some of each group members' stylistic approaches and more open, progressive structures, "Alpha" dropped the ball. A far greater percentage of the album's content is generic pop fare and the group members' individuality doesn't shine through nearly as well. Really, there isn't any reason at all to give this album a listen unless you're a devout fan of 80's AOR and pop rock. I would, however, encourage any fan of Roger Dean's artwork to go and buy a copy (or at least a print) of the cover because it is a very fine painting of his. Mine currently sits beautifully on my shelf and makes for great eye candy when I listen to early 70's Yes, which the music on "Alpha" does not resemble in the slightest.

Ah, what happened here? The sophomore jinx?

Asia's self-titled debut really wasn't that bad, especially as an early-1980s pop/AOR offering from a band clearly aiming more for commercial success than pure artistry. But Asia is rightly viewed as an album with three or four strong songs, filled out with songs that were less remarkable, though not bad. Any songs left over from the Asia sessions were, one would assume, even less remarkable. Plus, how confident could these guys have been that there'd be a follow-up for which to hold songs aside? As I understand it, there wasn't as much time to write and record Alpha; after a longer-than-initially-planned world tour, the members of Asia caught up on their individual lives, then came back together to capitalize as quickly as possible on having had the Billboard #1 album of 1982. Alpha was released about 16 months after Asia.

The result is more of the same. On one hand, that's not bad under the circumstances. On the other, how much more of the same do we need? Wikipedia states that Alpha is less progressive and more pop-oriented than Asia, and in what appears to be a textbook example of an "echo chamber" effect, I've seen this repeated many, times, including on Prog Archives. Whereas this claim may have some merit, the balance between progressive and pop is only slightly different between the two albums. What is definitely true is that Steve Howe is credited as a co-writer on just one Alpha track, where he is listed to having contributed to more than half of Asia. But in my estimation, of the 21 songs between the two albums (I'm including cassette bonus tracks here - - remember them?), only one is really a Steve Howe song anyway ("One Step Closer," which I consider Asia's best song). Put another way, except for this one track, I didn't notice Howe as a composer on Asia, so the absence of his name from the writing credits on Alpha doesn't represent a major change between the two albums.

One song on Alpha, though, really stands out: "Don't Cry" is a beautiful piece of art-pop, nearly as good as "One Step Closer" and by far the best of the songs with the patented Asia vocal sound. The rest of the album hangs together nicely.

A final thought: which is more poorly named, the band or the album? I hope it's clear why I question the band name; meanwhile, the term "alpha" indicates the very first in a series. Just being picky.

After a stunningly successful debut album that surpassed the wildest dreams of the 80s supergroup ASIA, the band, made up of the 70s prog heavy weights vocalist and bassist John Wetton (King Crimson, UK), guitarist Steve Howe (Yes), keyboardist Geoff Downes (Yes, The Buggles) and drummer Carl Palmer (ELP), wasted no time trying to follow up the multi-platinum super smash that created a new form of progressive pop. Having hit #1 on the album charts as well as scoring a #4 Billboard hit with "Heat of the Moment," ASIA proved to be one of the most unexpected success stories in the new wave infatuated early 80s.

Unlike the self-titled debut which weaved in 70s progressive rock elements that were crafted into catchy pop infused melodic ear worms, ALPHA on the other hand left behind many of the pompous grandiosities and focused more on the pop side of the equation with the hopes of an even more lucrative sophomore experience that would keep ASIA relevant as a new force in the 80s music scene. Unfortunately the album failed to even come close to the debut's phenomenal reception however ALPHA still cracked the top 10 on the album charts and two top 40 hits in the form of "Don't Cry" and "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes."

Despite the album going platinum and keeping the band somewhat relevant in the changing market place, the album is generally seen as a big dud that derailed the momentum generated by the debut and as a result Steve Howe would be the first of the superstar cast to jump ship which proved to be the right choice as the music's quality would plummet to a pathetic low on the following "Astra," an album so utterly devoid of relevance that i scratch my head in amazement that this project was deemed worthy of further exploration.

While ASIA is a group that hardened proggers love to hate, i have a soft spot for these kinds of prog pop projects that focus on irresistible melodies while adding small packets of prog power to give that extra bombast. There's no denying that ALPHA was a step down from its power-packed predecessor but all in all i can't say ALPHA doesn't have many great tracks on it. While side A which was referred to as ALPHA was clearly the stronger of the sides (side B was penned the Beta side), the album contains a wealth of catchy prog infused pop songs that displayed many of the attributes of the debut.

While "Don't Cry" was a suitable first single that barely cracked the top 10, "The Smile That Left Your Eyes" is a power piano driven ballad that i actually love quite a bit. After that the track "The Heat Goes On" is a stellar organ led rocker that displays Wetton's best vocal style, the best guitar work of the album as well as nice keyboard led jams towards the end. The rest of the album starting with "Eye To Eye" seems to be a little more forgettable however as the second side seems to recycle some of the riffs and melodic grooves of the far better ALPHA side of the album. "Never In A Million Years" and "My Own Time" are also both nice tracks.

The track "The Last To Know" initiates the biggest gag reflex as the band was clearly trying to craft the perfect ballad, the sort Celine Dion would make a career out of however "True Colors" exhibits a more memorable keyboard hook with softer verses and more bombastic choruses, however for the most part other than that one track i find it impossible to remember what any of the side B tracks sound like. ASIA had their brief day in the sun and it was apparent that the project was slated to be more of a one hit wonder type project that just happened to get lucky and have slight success on this sophomore unit.

This is probably the time when the band should've just called it a day but to many a progger's chagrin continues to the present day cranking out new products in this style ad nauseum. In conclusion ALPHA is a worthy consideration for roughly half the tracks on board but for only those who don't mind a little 80s pop playing the 70s exploitation game. Personally i pretty give up on ASIA after this album. "Astra" was a major turd in the punch bowl and left me with zero interest in checking out even one album that followed. To me ASIA is a two album band and nothing can convince me otherwise. OK, maybe with Ron "Bumblefoot" That joining the lineup, i'll at least have to consider it.

Supergroups are an interesting breed of bands. They come from different bands, sometimes one band, sometimes multiple. Bands like ELP and A Perfect Circle are great examples with the lead singers coming from different but extremely popular bands, Greg Lake in King Crimson, and Maynard Keenan from TOOL. However supergroups, despite having members from bands of differing genres, might not have the same genres as those bands with their members. One such example is Asia with Steve Howe from Yes, John Wetton from King Crimson, Geoff Downes also from Yes, and Carl Palmer from ELP. I always wanted to get into this band at some point, so when I found this album at a record store, I decided to get it too see what Asia was like.

The first song 'Don't Cry' kickstart this album. It is a cool and crisp song with beautiful synths, vocals, and some great guitar and drumming. Don't Cry sets a sort of standard for this album with the second track 'The Smile Has Left Your Eyes' continuing these trends, however establishing their own sort of flow and rhythms too them, however each song seems too do it better and better every time. Each song from My Own Time, The Goes On, and Eye To Eye continues these themes both lyrically and sound wise. Speaking of lyrics, most of the songs here are more focused on love and were written by Wetton and Downes on all of the tracks. I just thought that was neat. However my least favorite track here is True Colors. It still establishes the themes of Don't Cry too The Last To Know but it something about it kinda makes it forgettable, but after that song is over we got the awesome Midnight Sun that leads to the amazing last track Open Your Eyes.

So basically while having a more commercial and 80s sound, it is still an awesome record. Heck I don't really mind the 80s sorta sound too it, I think it actually makes the album sound cooler. Despite not being perfect I still enjoyed this record.

Words like "commercial" and "corporate" are slung at Asia a lot, and sometimes it's unfair and sometimes it isn't. One respect in which you can get them bang to rights when it comes to compromising their music for corporate reasons, however, comes to the songwriting on Alpha: the record company had noticed that the big hit singles on their debut album were all Wetton/Downes numbers, and so asked that Wetton and Downes write all the material here.

Thus it is that all the songs on Alpha are credited to the duo, bar for The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, which John Wetton penned by himself. This, of course, leaves Steve Howe and Carl Palmer almost on the level of session musicians, which might go some way to explaining why Howe didn't come back for the next album. Carl did, but Carl only had one songwriting credit on the debut anyway, so perhaps he was just happy to be there.

Not only did Howe have songwriting credits on about half the songs on the debut album, but they were fairly consistently the songs which had a bit more of a commercial spin and a bit less space for proggy moments, and that's exactly what the record company wanted here. Inevitably, the result is that the band's carefully-tuned prog-hard rock- pop blend ended up a little skewed away from the prog corner of that triangle.

If you're a listener who despised Heat of the Moment or Only Time Will Tell and regarded the proggier moments of the debut album as an oasis in a desert, then you'll likely find this boring. For my part, I find this at least an enjoyable blend of AOR and prog-tinged pop which benefits to an extent from a more unified musical direction behind it, even as it loses a little something as a result of losing the full range of flavours previously offered.

As a result, it's in a "one step forward, one step back" sort of situation: it's another enjoyable listen, but I'm not sure that I'm keen on listening on all that much Asia beyond this and the debut, and it's certainly a harder sell for fans of the four founder members' prog pasts than their debut was.