Asia
Arena

If Asia titles one of their albums "Arena", it must mean that Arena rock truly exists! In 1996, losing their guitarist once again (Pitrelli), Downes and the group opted for a solution that was successful back in the day (1992, album "Aqua"), which is to have two guitarists officially join the band. These were Aziz Ibrahim and none other than Elliot Randall, one of the most phenomenal guitarists in the world. Speaking of "Arena", it's immediately worth noting that, despite the title, this is the least solemn and pompous album the Asia had recorded up to that point. The opening track "Into The Arena", for example, is a chill instrumental featuring ample percussion, with a Chris Rea-style guitar that fits in 'positively'. "Arena," the second track but the first song, despite its very prog intro, proceeds in the vein of a certain old-school pop-chill. The chorus is still in pure Asia style, but everything else sounds like a (good) vintage Santana piece. Even Downes plays as if he were handling an old Hammond organ, perhaps plucked straight from "Black Magic Woman".

Another 33.33 percent is dedicated to well-crafted pop-rock, starting with "Never", which only has too many, far too many keyboards to think it could appeal to absolutely everyone... But when these transform into Hammond, blending with gospel choirs, with John Payne sounding like Joe Cocker, not to mention Randall's black and white Stratocaster, well then the piece becomes as He commands. "Turn It Around" is decent, featuring nighttime pop-rock, on which Payne navigates impressively, at times shouting, at times whispering. "Falling" is muted, a keyboard-driven pop song (the keys sound somewhat like in Supertramp's "The Logical Song") that's neither here nor there. "Words", on the other hand, is a very beautiful, catchy ballad... Too bad for these darned space keyboards and, in general, the inevitable overproduction.

There remain some strange intersections to mention, starting with "Heaven", which initially sounds like "One Of These Days" by Pink Floyd; an example of Arena rock enhanced by more theatrical passages and less partitioned/rhythmic vocal parts better exploited melodically. But does it already sound overdone, or is it just my impression? Ah, you know what it resembles? Céline Dion's "A New Day Has Come" ... And Khaled's "Aicha". And if the former is from 2002, "Aicha" is from '96, just like "Arena". Ultimately, the song by the 'king of rai' starts and ends with "A", so what harm would there be if...? However in the absence of evidence to the contrary, there's full innocence.

"Two Sides Of The Moon", with a title once again 'evocative' (yes, but evocative of something and someone else), has an intro that is basically "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" by Yes. A very aggressive solo between bongos that have nothing to do with it, but everything counts. After this sanguine and ethnic space, space cowboy Geffrey Downes gives us a good minute of ethereal (and outdated) keyboards in the style of J.M. Jarre. But it’s not over: Asia annexes Jamaica into their territory, and "Two Sides Of The Moon" ends entirely in an upbeat, stuttering rhythm... Aziz Ibrahim, an English guitarist of Pakistani origin (and thus the only one with something genuinely Asian), puts his experience in the "Arabesque" field into "U Bring Me Down"... But it's all in vain: overwhelmingly prog keyboards ascend, obliterating the immense efforts of poor Aziz. In the end, the track is a medium Bon Jovi-like rocker, still above the average of its copyright holders, and for its drama, atmosphere, and emphasis.

We're only missing the almost Vivaldi-like final instrumental "Bella Nova", which is redundant, and two tracks of true pomp music. "The Day Before The War", a ballad preceded by Downes sounding a sort of silence to the soldiers... The dawn of tomorrow: that would be the time to die, so let's touch wood when we hear this song... Beneath a continuous and typical martial rock riff, there's drumming and secondary guitar work very close to trash metal... The actual song, when the vocals begin, is nothing more than an acoustic ballad without highs or lows, followed by an overly flat instrumental performance. "Tell Me Why" is also space loneliness for John Payne, someone who pitches his notes as if he were a Giovanni Bongiovanni with one more testicle (and five more years of vocal school).

The references to vintage prog, the "heavy" kind, the blues rock callbacks in one episode, the percussion, the slightly exotic tastes, the various sound solutions—all these little attempts put together manage to save the final product: the variety of styles, a greater "compositional commitment", at least not always and in any case being overwhelmed by clichés (at least not without putting up the slightest resistance), grant "Arena" a passing mark. Asia is and remains, album after album, a band that will limp along over the years. And if the fault, after all, were Geff Downes, the man-Asia, and his now almost graceless, intrusive, verbose keyboards? And if, for the right outcome (at least qualitatively) of Asia's albums, he were the element to be dismissed?