Best Helping Cover

I've always loved this cover, from when I first saw it. It conjures up images of music within which, if not vital and vicious, biting and brutal, is at least a little more ferocious than friendly.

Well, that's what I assumed, when it came out, and I was still young and unknowledgeable. I wasn't sure who Asia were, and so I asked a friend who i knew a lot more about music than I (because he had an older brother who lived and breathed music). That friend told me it was the band who played "Heat of the Moment" - and in an instant, all my dreams were shattered.

I never bothered attempting to listen to the album, or any other Asia album which followed, because HotM was so not to my taste.

I listened to the album for the first time ever only recently. HotM still does nothing for me. It's just so insipid, uninspired and uninspiring. Worse now, for me, it sounds horribly dated. It oozes '80s, and not in a good way. I love much of the '80s (heck, I love Duran Duran!), but this just sounds even cheesier and cornier now than it did at the time.

I far prefer the version played on Steve Hackett's "Tokyo Tapes". Still not entirely to my taste, but a lot more enjoyable than this. I should probably have skipped this track, and started from track two, but I thought I ought to give the album a proper chance, and listen from the beginning.

But that second track? Aw man, it just sounds like a slightly more upbeat HotM. I'm guessing (though I've never heard this before) that this was another track made for the radio, and possibly released as a single. Thankfully, as I write this, the song is fading out.

And this, "Sole Survivor", is where I should have started listening to the album, I guess. The opening seconds are more enjoyable than anything else so far, and already the music sounds more like I imagined Asia to sound - albeit, still nowhere near as ferocious.

It's still a very radio-friendly song, but doesn't sound anywhere near as dated, nor as cheesy. The middle (approx 2.30 to 3.30) is actually quite good, with some beautiful guitar, and then drums, before the song kicks back in.

"One Step Closer" is again a track that surprised me by not turning me off. Two tracks in a row with more impressive instrumental opening passages, than I might have expected. Going by the album so far, HotM (and OTWT, if it too was released as a single, as I suspect it may have been), somewhat misrepresent the album as a whole. 

There's definitely no doubting the musicianship of any involved (obviously, given their pedigree), and the instrumental passages tend to be good. Now if this song had been played on the radio (rather than HotM), I maybe, perhaps, might have purchased the album. It sounds to me like a single, but it's nowhere near as cheesy '80s in your face pop as HotM.

And now "Time Again", which is actually  a groovy wee beastie. Again, far more what I would expect to hear from the Asia of the cover, than the first two songs. And again, the middle instrumental passage is pretty good. This is my favourite song so far, relatively speaking. (Yeah, I’m damning it with faint praise.)

"Wildest Dreams" and “Without You" are also enjoyable enough. The drums in “Without You” really carry the song, where otherwise it might almost drag. And then we’re back where we started, with the first song since the opening salvo, that I'm not really enjoying at all - though, for what it’s worth, it's still better than both those opening tracks. I guess it's not so much that it’s bad, so much as it just does not sound particularly good. The album ends on an alright “Here Comes the Feeling". Here comes the feeling that at last the album is ending, and I’ll probably never listen to it again.