Asia
Aurora [EP]

I knew perfectly well, when I set out to purchase the entire discography online, that the titles of Asia's works were single words that began and ended with "A". As a result, while moving the titles to the cart and coming across "Aurora", I didn't even pay attention to what I was buying... "Asia Alpha Astra Aqua Arena Aura"... "Aurora" fit perfectly, I must say...

While waiting for the package to arrive, however, several elements led me to have some initial doubts... First of all, I checked the confirmation email of the order, and I noticed that "Aurora" cost me almost twice as much as the other CDs... A clue that should have jumped out immediately, if I didn't have colander-shaped hands. Was it a hits collection, perhaps released at Christmas, to make some money (at my expense?)? I decided to browse the sites, but couldn't find the slightest trace of "Aurora" in their discography... A Christmas collection, okay, but from how many years ago if even the internet knows nothing about it? The suspicion that it was a "money-making CD" increased exponentially, until, between commitments, as well as addressing and overcoming my tendency to carelessness, I revisited the "sell-everything" site, in search of "Aurora"... Among the various singles by Ramazzotti emerged a completely black image... I enlarged it and noticed that, on the cover, the graphic indicating the band's name and title was indeed there, but it was printed in black on a black background. And that was indeed "my item"...

Where were Roger Dean's gaudy graphics? Did you not want to pay the good old Roger? And why? To save? And if you didn't want to spend a farthing on a cover, what did you put inside this CD, since you're so miserly?! Further scrolling, I noticed it was an EP, and it was marked as hard-to-find (perhaps, but the title was still "available"). Anyway, an "unfindable" (sic!) project was a gem, and a gem is always a gem. When the haul "finally" arrived home, I discovered the bitter, yet predictable, truth.

Produced and distributed in Japan only in 1986, "Aurora" was nothing but a mini-disc containing a track present on one of their LPs, and three b-sides from three 45s. Forget "unofficial project", "alternative solution" to the album/single pair! A con, that's what it was! A con priced like a hard-to-find. And at that price, they didn't even sell me Roger Dean’s cover, those damned... Not that I like his covers, but at least there would have been something to look at... And the three b-sides? The three b-sides were in a b-sides collection that arrived along with all the other ordered CDs! So much for hard-to-find! Granted that, to many people, any Asia record is considered, at best, 'a load of junk'; granted that I feel like saying that the ones who think so aren't completely wrong, "Aurora", for me, was "the con of cons".

For the record, the track already released on one of their LPs is "Too Late", present in "Astra" (1986), which in itself is already the worst album of the Wetton-era, that is from '82 to '86. In short, not wanting to release "Too Late" as a single for Japan, convinced that those who spend big bucks to eat raw fish are capable of spending just as much on this other atrocity, they decide to make a "mini-disc", including 3 already polished tracks, without writing, playing, or recording anything. And without spending a dime or a yen. "Too Late", for the record, is nothing more than a catchy but already heard AOR rock, with a keyboard intro reminiscent of "Hold The Line" by Toto.

"Ride Easy" is a pompous episode with big guitar riffs, "tardissimo-medieval" keyboard phrases by Downes, and tastefully proggy solos unmistakably with Steve Howe's guitar, recognizable from miles away. The pop chorus is inevitable. B-side of "Heat Of The Moment". "Daylight" begins with a church organ; the priest removes his habit and dons armor; then, like every respectable Templar, goes to slay evil. Here, too, an inexplicable (and typical of "Asian" style) melodic choral chorus, which rather than resembling Bon Jovi seems to resemble something by the Pooh. B-side of "Don't Cry". In the final "Lying To Yourself" - the B-side of the ballad "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" - the beautiful classic pop melody is marred by this pomp framework. Try putting a frame from the Palace of Versailles on an Andy Warhol piece, and ask yourself if you think it's a successful idea.

With those potentials, Asia could have astonished me and us with special effects, but instead they chose to make money... "Aurora" isn't absolutely awful, but it's the cruel and ruthless rule of the 'music business' (a rule that, oddly, inherits from rural wisdom, which indeed says "nothing is wasted of the artist") that ensures the useless project gets a marvelous "1". Who knows if it was a decision made solely by the record company... Who knows if, instead, the explicit consent of Asia for the publication was envisaged in the project of this EP (a project which would only require a minute of phone conversation with the songwriters)... In that case, the band, at least Wetton and Downes, would be responsible for this "mess" (the pig and the artist, as you see, continue to go hand in hand...)...

Of course: we must be guaranteeing, we know... But in life, it's rare to be wrong when you think the worst. It's buying on a whim, like I do, where you're really wrong!

Ah, just for the record: even in Japan, they couldn't sell this garbage.