ALPHA

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).