Great video! I held a grudge against them when I was younger because I was a prog nerd and I thought Asia should have been the best album ever due to their prog history... but I was a snob and couldn't handle pop music. Now that I'm a bit more mature I'll check them out.
Definitely agree on Gravitas being down low, though I'd put it just above Rare at the bottom. Funnily enough, Aura is my absolute favorite album, followed by Asia, though Aura IS really helped by those bonus tracks like you said.
I agree 100%! Aqua is better than Asia, probably Alpha too. Alpha is just to pop, Aqua is just that good. Was listening to "Your the stranger" from Aura today, quite a toe tapper... Also, I thought Omega was great, but still have a few albums to go and am excited...
Excellent ranking of Asia's albums. I only discover Asia's back catalog. I only had the greatest hits for years. The first three albums are the holy trinity. Aqua is pretty damn good and so is Aria. The rest of those John Payne albums are very patchy. I gave both Archivia compilation albums a listen very recently, and I was really disappointed. Most of the songs are just too lightweight poppy middle of the road stuff, with no crunchy heavy guitars. However, they did have a couple of great songs especially the awesome and rocking 'Boys from Diamond City'. That's an incredible song and should have been on the Astra album. The later reunion albums are great to awful. The best for me was 'phoenix'. The rest of them were really patchy and more miss than hit. I thought 'Omega' was truly awful. Just nothing stood out to me. Otherwise, I think they are a great band.
My ranking of their albums from best to worst would go something like this: Asia XXX Aqua Aura Omega Phoenix Silent Nation Astra Arena Gravitas Aria Alpha
Not agree at all with your judgement of Asia. First, Asia is a 80's band, so no reason to compare Asia with great prog bands of the 70's. Even those 70's bands change their musical approch in the 80's (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Kansas...). That said, the style which identified the band is catchy songs played by original prog musicians. You present some albums you like because they are 100% prog. But being 100% prog is not Asia . I cut their history in 3 sections : The 80's : Best album is the first ! And to this day, this album is the Everest of their whole career. The second is "ASTRA", for 2 reasons, the first is the quality of their songs and secondly, the bright and clear production. The worst is without a doubt "ALPHA". The mix of that album is horrible. I don't have in all my records collection an album which is so badly mixed. Pure shit !! If you hear the differences between the guitar and the synths, you are probably an earsmith !! This album needs amongst all to be remixed. John Payne era : the best album of that period is "SILENT NATION", probably the closer to the original style of the band in 82 ! Apart from the opening track, "What is Love", the rest are well crafted and catchy songs well played and by a real band, just the same 4 guys throughout the whole album. The second is "AQUA", the album which is the most dominated by Geoff Downes. The rest of the albums during the John Payne era are nonsence. "ARIA" remains an acceptable album, even including the worst opener of their whole career. "Anytime' goes nowhere, typically a Payne song, but nowhere near to the Asia's standards. 'Military Man' is probably the best track on that album, a song close to "After the War' from 'ASTRA'. The other 2 remaining albums "AURA" and "ARENA" are albums which got quite nothing to see with Asia' style. It's way too proggy for being Asia. They should have giving the band another name ! I don't want to talk about the 2 albums of archives ! I was expected archives with John Wetton, but no, only with the money maker John Payne ! What a shame !! John Wetton returns : the best one is "OMEGA" with real classics tracks, the real original Asia style is back and its brilliant throughout a good 2/3 of this great album. The second best album of that era is "XXX" which also encompassed a great numbers of great tracks, well produced. Then, well below these 2 albums, you got "PHOENIX", where the auto production didn't work well. And songs like "No Way Back" or "Parallel Worlds" are anything you want, but not Asia songs. Steve Howe's songs saved the album along with the last track. Then finally, you got "GRAVITAS" which got a couple of good songs, especially "Valkyrie".
@Jeremy Spade So if I must choose the best album of your 4 eras, then "Asia", "Aqua", "Silent Nation"and "Omega" are the best albums of each era. My opinion, again
Silent Nation is great but it sounds very alien compared to everything else the band has done (with both Wetton and Payne). Plus there are session musicians on that album apparently like Billy Sherwood, Jay Schellen, and Ant Glynne. You also mention that Silent Nation is the only album from the Payne era to be performed by a proper band but Aria is done by a proper band too and the only Payne album with no session musicians whatsoever…just John, Geoff, Al, and Mike…I must say though, your analysis is well thought out, well crafted, and well worded. You sound very knowledgeable and sophisticated, well done! For me my favorite from the early days is Asia, while my favorite Payne album is Aqua and my favorite reunion album XXX. My least favorite early album is Astra, great album, has my favorite song of all time on it, but there’s only a few “top tracks” compared to the first two (it’s better produced than alpha though)! Least favorite Payne album is Arena. Good album, but there’s a number of bad songs. I must say though I was severely hooked on U Bring Me Down once and even Turn It Around as well. My least favorite Wetton album like yours is Gravitas. I think it’s very good, it’s just that their “prog attempt” on that album didn’t land the way Phoenix landed…
This is a good review, but what about ‘Then and Now’? Can you review and give your opinions on that?
Great video! I held a grudge against them when I was younger because I was a prog nerd and I thought Asia should have been the best album ever due to their prog history... but I was a snob and couldn't handle pop music. Now that I'm a bit more mature I'll check them out.
You won't be disappointed
Daylight was also available on the cassette.
I also love Aria, but in my opinion Omega is one of their best records!
Definitely agree on Gravitas being down low, though I'd put it just above Rare at the bottom. Funnily enough, Aura is my absolute favorite album, followed by Asia, though Aura IS really helped by those bonus tracks like you said.
I’ve actually only heard their debut album but I loved it. I think I’m gonna check out some of their other albums! Once again great video!
Thank you. Alpha is a really good one.
'Gravitas' is a great record, has really grown on me. Still haven't ventured into the Payne stuff.
Give Aqua a try and Aria, the other stuff falls short, but Aqua is REALLY good!
I agree 100%! Aqua is better than Asia, probably Alpha too. Alpha is just to pop, Aqua is just that good. Was listening to "Your the stranger" from Aura today, quite a toe tapper... Also, I thought Omega was great, but still have a few albums to go and am excited...
12. Arena
11. Gravitas
10. Silent Nation
9. Astra
8. Alpha
7. Aria
6. Aura
5. Phoenix
4. Omega
3. Aqua
2. XXX
1. Asia
All solid albums though
Nice video! I have listened to debut album but not much else. I will check out other albums.
Alpha is great!
Thanks for sharing! But you are all over the place, you lost me when you kept going back and forth between the years!
Excellent ranking of Asia's albums. I only discover Asia's back catalog. I only had the greatest hits for years. The first three albums are the holy trinity. Aqua is pretty damn good and so is Aria. The rest of those John Payne albums are very patchy. I gave both Archivia compilation albums a listen very recently, and I was really disappointed. Most of the songs are just too lightweight poppy middle of the road stuff, with no crunchy heavy guitars. However, they did have a couple of great songs especially the awesome and rocking 'Boys from Diamond City'. That's an incredible song and should have been on the Astra album. The later reunion albums are great to awful. The best for me was 'phoenix'. The rest of them were really patchy and more miss than hit. I thought 'Omega' was truly awful. Just nothing stood out to me. Otherwise, I think they are a great band.
I agree Aqua and Aria are great and also agree the rest have too many filler songs
My ranking of their albums from best to worst would go something like this:
Asia
XXX
Aqua
Aura
Omega
Phoenix
Silent Nation
Astra
Arena
Gravitas
Aria
Alpha
Wow Alpha last? Just surprised, good list though.
Not agree at all with your judgement of Asia. First, Asia is a 80's band, so no reason to compare Asia with great prog bands of the 70's. Even those 70's bands change their musical approch in the 80's (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Kansas...). That said, the style which identified the band is catchy songs played by original prog musicians. You present some albums you like because they are 100% prog. But being 100% prog is not Asia .
I cut their history in 3 sections :
The 80's : Best album is the first ! And to this day, this album is the Everest of their whole career. The second is "ASTRA", for 2 reasons, the first is the quality of their songs and secondly, the bright and clear production. The worst is without a doubt "ALPHA". The mix of that album is horrible. I don't have in all my records collection an album which is so badly mixed. Pure shit !! If you hear the differences between the guitar and the synths, you are probably an earsmith !! This album needs amongst all to be remixed.
John Payne era : the best album of that period is "SILENT NATION", probably the closer to the original style of the band in 82 ! Apart from the opening track, "What is Love", the rest are well crafted and catchy songs well played and by a real band, just the same 4 guys throughout the whole album. The second is "AQUA", the album which is the most dominated by Geoff Downes. The rest of the albums during the John Payne era are nonsence. "ARIA" remains an acceptable album, even including the worst opener of their whole career. "Anytime' goes nowhere, typically a Payne song, but nowhere near to the Asia's standards. 'Military Man' is probably the best track on that album, a song close to "After the War' from 'ASTRA'. The other 2 remaining albums "AURA" and "ARENA" are albums which got quite nothing to see with Asia' style. It's way too proggy for being Asia. They should have giving the band another name ! I don't want to talk about the 2 albums of archives ! I was expected archives with John Wetton, but no, only with the money maker John Payne ! What a shame !!
John Wetton returns : the best one is "OMEGA" with real classics tracks, the real original Asia style is back and its brilliant throughout a good 2/3 of this great album. The second best album of that era is "XXX" which also encompassed a great numbers of great tracks, well produced. Then, well below these 2 albums, you got "PHOENIX", where the auto production didn't work well. And songs like "No Way Back" or "Parallel Worlds" are anything you want, but not Asia songs. Steve Howe's songs saved the album along with the last track. Then finally, you got "GRAVITAS" which got a couple of good songs, especially "Valkyrie".
@Jeremy Spade Those "facts" as you name them are just my opinion. Like your "facts" that are just your opinion
@Jeremy Spade So if I must choose the best album of your 4 eras, then "Asia", "Aqua", "Silent Nation"and "Omega" are the best albums of each era. My opinion, again
Silent Nation is great but it sounds very alien compared to everything else the band has done (with both Wetton and Payne). Plus there are session musicians on that album apparently like Billy Sherwood, Jay Schellen, and Ant Glynne. You also mention that Silent Nation is the only album from the Payne era to be performed by a proper band but Aria is done by a proper band too and the only Payne album with no session musicians whatsoever…just John, Geoff, Al, and Mike…I must say though, your analysis is well thought out, well crafted, and well worded. You sound very knowledgeable and sophisticated, well done! For me my favorite from the early days is Asia, while my favorite Payne album is Aqua and my favorite reunion album XXX. My least favorite early album is Astra, great album, has my favorite song of all time on it, but there’s only a few “top tracks” compared to the first two (it’s better produced than alpha though)! Least favorite Payne album is Arena. Good album, but there’s a number of bad songs. I must say though I was severely hooked on U Bring Me Down once and even Turn It Around as well. My least favorite Wetton album like yours is Gravitas. I think it’s very good, it’s just that their “prog attempt” on that album didn’t land the way Phoenix landed…