Asia

When I heard this CD was being released, I was quite surprised. First off to see that the original version of Asia was putting out a new album for the first time in 25 years, and secondly that Asia has not officially broken up in all that time. Turns out in the interim, one of the original Asia guys kept going with a bunch of other guys. It's created a quite biazarre scenario where there are actually two Asia bands at the moment. Go read their history on Wikipedia. It's quite the web. When I picked up the Greatest Hits of theirs in 2007, I thought Asia stopped after their third album. Boy was I wrong.

So here we are in 2008, and Asia has a new album out. Due to the strength of the original Asia album, and the fact that this was the same guys again, I bought it. I guess I was expecting the first album again. That's not what I got. I got an album that sounds like Asia - there's no doubt about that.

I'm writing this just a couple of weeks after release, so I'll need to listen more to get a better appreciation of the album, but so far, the first track is by far the catchiest, that's "Never Again". It's a decent track, but nothing that will set the earth on fire. If you liked Asia in the past, you should check it out. If you haven't checked out Asia in the past, then I'm not sure how this will appeal in 2008, to be honest.

I'll have an update later on when I have listened to it more.

This is yet another in my line of Greatest Hits albums. Asia was a band from the mid 80's that was formed on the heels of several groups, most notably Steve Howe of Yes.

Their first album was an absolute bombshell of an album when it was originally released. You couldn't be a teenager then and not know about Asia. They were all over the place. Asia actually only has three studio albums (well, with what counts as the "original" lineup - there were a boatload of fiddly obscure versions in the 90's). I did own their first one (Asia) when it was new, and their second one too, but it wasn't near as good as the first, and I lost interest pretty quickly. I seem to recall borrowing a copy of the third album from a friend, but I wasn't interested.

There's been several greatest hits for Asia over the years, but this one in 2006 is the one I finally snapped up. I have never owned any Asia on CD before, and this seemed like a natural option for me for a few reasons. First was the inclusion of a second disc - a DVD in this package. The DVD contains half a dozen music videos by Asia, so it was a good package. Plus I bought it from Best Buy for $7.99, so it was a good deal. I actually paid zero for it, as I used a gift card I had gotten for my birthday. :)

I'm not sure how well this would go over for kids hearing it for the first time, but I certainly loved it when it was new, and it seems pretty darned good still.