THEN & NOW

This is pure awfulness. This is the only Asia release I ever had. I was expecting the best of the best. What I got was a collection of horrible 80s rock. If I had known that the two best songs here("Heat Of The Moment" and "Only Time Will Tell") were on the band's debut album, I would have just got that instead. At least I could have enjoyed some half decent non-singles, maybe.

As bad as the songs from the first two albums are, the newer songs are even worse. A lot of the music here sounds like a poppier Loverboy or a more rockin' Air Supply. This collection turned me off this band completely. In 1982 these guys forced an American band called Asia to "retire". What a-holes. These guys were clearly in it for the money. To quote Wetton: "You gotta have hits". Up yours. I honestly don't think Wetton, Howe, Palmer & Downes created any good music since the 1970s. Howe's solo stuff might be an exception(I've only heard his first two).

I like the part at the end of "Heat Of The Moment" where they sound like a group of teenagers in a garage trying to play a Henry Cow song. Maybe their only interesting musical moment. I will never know because I have no intention of listening to any of their albums. A shining example of everything wrong with mainstream rock music in the 1980s. 1 star.

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