Asia
Silent Nation

THE REVIEW

Three years after the splendid and sophisticated cosmic pop rock of "Aura," Geoff Downes and John Payne seem to have finally found the right formula to give Asia a real future. Three years later, they try again, but the tone changes. Not to replicate the taste expressed in "Aura" and return to make rock. Change, rebirth, forgetting the bold attempts that missed the mark in the past; questioning everything, starting with what has most characterized the band over all these years: the title that begins and ends with "A."

"Silent Nation" is the title for a band that has finally stopped being a monument to itself, and that (apparently) intends to recreate credibility. After all, the ages are those of maturity (even more than abundant), the band is, all things considered, over two decades old, the best album of the entire discography has been the most recent... What else is missing? And who knows how an Asia-rock album would sound in 2004, made with the awareness and maturity expressed in "Aura": perhaps this is what Downes and Payne wondered. An album with all the canons of "Alpha" and "Astra," with all the AOR and pomp rock that at the time were so awkward and unhappy as to render them pure mediocrity.

To see how it goes, to see if "even" these genres, thanks to taste and experience, can finally deliver as they should. The result of "Silent Nation" is decent, certainly better than past episodes, but not excellent. The AOR, in the first tracks of the tracklist, is not unleashed, rather it is well-paced. Docile, linear, not surprising, but neither senselessly brash. The return to pomp rock (at the end of the tracklist) is heavy and hard in "I Will Be There For You"; medieval and horror, in "Darkness Day", among Gregorian chants, the usual immense John Payne, and echoing guitars; standard in the ballad "Gone For You" and in the epic conclusion of "The Prophet." What changes is the knowledge in dosing the instruments, keyboards first, and in not overemphasizing the riskiest passages.

In the middle, Asia finally proposes something different, from the semi-Pink Floyd of "Blue Moon Monday", from the soft rock of "Midnight", to the guitar-driven rock of the title track, to the light-hearted rock of "Ghost In The Mirror", stuff you would have expected in a Brian May CD.

The result is dignified but not up to the expectations of those who discovered Asia only in 2001. Without infamy, "Silent Nation" seems to show a bit of insecurity, almost caution. Better to take it easy, Downes and Payne seem to suggest to each other: the risk is to overdo it, and commit yet another blunder. "Silent Nation" and its caution are the admission of guilt, of responsibility, and the awareness that gross mistakes were made in the past.

With "Silent Nation," a rock band has broken the ice. After twenty-two years of attempts.