It's been forever since the original group of four musicians that formed the true progressive/rock/super group Asia have made a record.

I was skeptical when I heard about this project and even more skeptical when I picked it up and gave it a listen.

I had to grind through listening to this album from start to finish without skipping ahead, skipping through songs or turning it off all together. This was some sad malaise of slowdown ballads and lukewarm songs I really didn't want to listen to and really didn't like.

I originally wanted to title my review of this album as, "MalAsia", if that gives you any indication of what I thought of it.

Curiously, the next day I had snippets of songs floating around my head and bits of melodies and lyrics I couldn't shake - and I could not figure out right away where all of these musical pieces-parts came from. 

Oddly, it dawned on me this music swimming around my brain were from this Asia album, Phoenix.

To appease the mental tickling in my head, I played Phoenix through again in it's entirety.

To my surprise - I liked it.
I liked it a lot.

The trite melodies and lyrics suddenly made sense to me within the scope of the album. The slow, lumbering songs suddenly captured me and I enjoyed the travel through them. The upbeat, rocking songs still sounded solid.

All in all, the group of these four men was tight and they certainly had their bits together and had put together something quite good.

What a surprise.

If you are an Asia fan at all, try this.
If you like Steve Howe, Carl Palmer, Geoff Downes or John Wetton, try this. 
Don't give up on it quickly, it my grow on you.

I now remember why I liked Asia in the past - they do what they do really well and no one else does what they do.

Asia homepage.