Asia
Alpha

THE REVIEW

The year after the 'interstellar' success of "Heat Of The Moment" and their debut on LP, Asia, or the Yesbuggleskingcrimsonemersonlakeandpalmer, play the same card... It's a time when prog bends, for survival and 'market demands,' to more standard compositional forms, meeting the dictates of that eighties taste which, after all, owes much to the pioneering musical experiments and sound inventions patented by prog bands in the previous decade. As if to say: we brought you into the world with a fart, you and your synthesizers, and now we have to do everything to resemble you...

But to be honest, that's not quite how it went. It was a period, the early eighties, when post-punk became pop, and the new wave turned into dance or new romantic... The noble progressive, therefore, older and wearier by fifteen years, could not come out unscathed... And after all, what harm does Mr. Prog do if he decides to shed three decades of toxins and that flab?, if he wears a pair of cuffed jeans and is definitively and fully seized by the Peter Pan syndrome? It's his life, time never turns back... Let's let him live it... The results, then, if we take albums like "90125" and "Big Generator" by Yes, are more than positive... The experiment, therefore, works, the girls might mistake you not for a peer but for his older - more charming, wealthy and 'experienced' - brother, and you are on the same radio station that usually plays your 'little brothers' music... You're 39 and a half and have your 17-year-old groupies, fragrant peaches all yours; you have two divorces and six children, and you're ready and enthusiastic about the prospect of the next colossal mistake...

The fact that musicians who know all Grieg and Schubert's scores by heart decide to play 'simple' AOR rock (maybe a bit more pompous than usual, not to completely betray their audience), is not in itself a discriminant, provided they bring home results qualitatively up to their more 'noble' works... But Asia? How do Asia do it? What results do they achieve? Nothing special, it was said and read about the debut... And in their second work, things get even worse.

The initial "Don't Cry" is a cross between a pomp-rock and a 60s juke box surf song, in the style of Little Eva et similia. An encouraging start, original, all in all, but nothing comparable to "Heat Of The Moment," the opening track of the debut. Buggles-style 'Plastic Age' keyboards in "Eye To Eye", on a Yes song-form, with a decent rhythm. A very standard pomp rock ballad for "Midnight Sun". Like Yes, Asia also try to make music similar to the cover of their album (rather than trying to do the opposite), reproducing the atmosphere found in this transfigured continent, where royal eagles fly and fish happily and freely among the ferns, right next to a quiet countryside town of 50 million inhabitants. "My Own Time (I'll Do What I Want)", in the refrain, seems like the theme song for the cartoon 'Dr. Slump & Arale'. But the foundations are rock and solemn... Inevitable, as Asia is the official band of the Highly Exaggerated and Prescribed Sire Azkyxhmunmwyj, Emperor and Lord of Asia in the year 10852 d. BB XIV (literally "after BerlusconiBush fourteenth"), and they have the utmost pleasure of accompanying Him everywhere, to celebrate His Divine Deeds with music.

Good, even in a 'normal' album, is "Never In A Million Years"... Yes, when progressive musicians decide to be more musicians than progressive, they are capable of making beautiful 'new' songs rather than trying new ways to replicate the same schemes. The march of the Highly Exaggerated and Prescribed Emperor Azkyxhmunmwyj's army continues in "Open Your Eyes", with the classic 'epic-prog verse, FM chorus' scheme. The rhythmic "Heat Goes On" is fairly decent, perhaps intending to refer to the "Heat" of the first album, the "Heat" that was a 'hit'. If this is a charge to meet the enemy, in "The Last To Know" they care for the (very few) wounded and celebrate the Heroes' return to the Homeland, while the Emperor announces to the people that to celebrate this yet another thrilling victory, he will add another letter to his name.

"The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" is the soundtrack for the remake of "The Time of Apples", a movie that on this occasion has been renamed "The Time of Mnyluwvw", a very popular fruit highly recommended by Asian nutritionists, as well as the most prestigious child psychology scholars, because the fruit in question has the peculiar trait of possessing its own intelligence, movement ability through rolling, and predisposition to dialogue and play, and is therefore considered very useful for children with socialization problems who, thanks to such a 'companion fruit', can thus solve their shyness issues and, once ready to be reintegrated among their peers, can finally devour the tasty friend... A typical example of an eighties-compliant prog-song for the final "True Colors".

To say this album deserved a review (and such a long one, no less) is excessive and untrue. After all, to fully appreciate these musicians, one only needs to draw from the practically endless (and if nothing else, far more representative) work of each of them in their respective original bands: these individuals, in their respective pasts, have played, written, and recorded better sounds and songs. Mediocre from the second to the last note, well-executed but little or no imaginative, predictable from top to bottom, new only to the ears of a total neophyte, "Alpha" didn't even manage to approach the just sufficient predecessor.

The band will retain its resounding name, famous for a handful of album covers, a hit, and for the musicians known to play in it... In this regard, it is also fair to point out that the fame of Asia is not entirely fully motivated, as the band will lose members along the way, and the heroes will be gradually replaced by qualified but not renowned second lines. Asia will never be worth as much as any of the glorious bands of the past, who thrive with myriad reviews on This Esteemed Site. So why did I write this review then? Because I'm a reviewer of scraps and because I felt like joking. And to prolong like I used to. And hope my good mood passes soon, or I'll start reviewing their entire discography, as is my habit.