ALPHA

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.