Asia
“Phoenix”
(Frontiers Records)

For those of you that don’t know (and as its been nigh on 25 years that’s forgiveable) since the classic line up of Steve Howe, John Wetton, Carl Palmer and Geoff Downes who made up the first (British) super group of the 80s namely Asia. With a wealth of talent and experience sourced from Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson and The Buggles, Asia’s debut became the biggest selling album in the world in 1982 and spawned the top ten hit single ‘Heat Of The Moment’ by successfully fusing together prog, classic rock and AOR. The follow up album ‘Alpha’ also went multi platinum and produced top ten singles like ‘Don’t Cry’ and seemingly on the verge of cracking the planet, as befits super group trends, Asia split and went their separate ways. Since then there have been various incarnations, none of which with on par with the MK1 line-up, which thankfully and successfully reunited (given Wetton’s triple heart bypass) in 2006. The aptly titled “Phoenix” is their first studio album and marks the return to the classic Asia sound (and just to make it complete the album cover is done by Roger Dean who did the amazing artwork on those first two albums). I can believe it took almost half a year to lay the 12 tracks down on this epic because the musicianship and song arrangements are nothing short of the perfectionist quality you’d expect from these luminaries. In comparison to the early material, I’d say “Phoenix” is actually less commercial (so don’t be expecting any hits on par with the aforementioned ‘Heat..’) and more prog although that’s no bad thing especially for those fans who’ve been waiting, as its more of a personal album, reflective of the band’s emotions to them.

-Shan Siva