Phoenix - 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.