Asia (album)

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Asia
Studio album from Asia

Publication
(s)

March 8, 1982

Label (s) Geffen Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

AOR / Progressive Rock

Title (number)

9

running time

43:54

occupation

production

Mike Stone

Studio (s)

Marcus Studios & Virgin Townhouse in London , England

chronology
- Asia Alpha
(studio album 1983)

Asia is the debut album of the English AOR / progressive rock band Asia , released in 1982. It reached number six in the German album charts and contained the hit single Heat of the Moment .

background

After an attempt to join the French band Atoll , with whom he had recorded three numbers, including the later Asia song Here Comes the Feeling , singer and bassist John Wetton (previously with King Crimson , Roxy Music , Uriah, among others Heep and UK ) at the suggestion of his manager Brian Lane with ex- Yes guitarist Steve Howe into the studio to record some songs together. Carl Palmer (ex- Emerson, Lake & Palmer ) was hired as the drummer for the new band . Former Yes keyboardist Geoffrey Downes , who subsequently became a constant songwriting partner of Wetton, was the last to join the formation. The band was called " Asia ".

Thanks to the mediation of their A&R representative John Kalodner , the newly founded record company David Geffens had already signed the band before Geffen had even heard a single note of the new pieces. Work on the debut album began very soon, in the summer of 1981. Mike Stone, who had already worked with Queen and Journey and was known for his " Wall of Sound " productions, was hired as the producer . The band used London's Townhouse Studios and Marcus Studios.

From the beginning it was clear to everyone involved that despite the past of the musicians who had all played in well-known progressive rock bands (Yes, ELP, King Crimson, UK), they did not want to make an album in this style. Shorter, more concise songs and a uniform, closed band sound should characterize the radio-friendly style of the new band.

Wetton and Howe first wrote pieces together, including Cutting it fine , Without you , Here comes the Feeling and One Step Closer . Then there were more and more songs that were created in cooperation between Wetton and Downes, including Wildest Dreams , Sole Survivor , Only Time will tell and Heat of the Moment . The two quickly became friends and formed a solid songwriting team in the future.

In November 1981 the recording sessions were completed. Asia was released on March 8, 1982.

Track list

  1. Heat of the Moment (Downes, Wetton) - 3:54
  2. Only Time Will Tell (Downes, Wetton) - 4:48
  3. Sole Survivor (Downes, Wetton) - 4:52
  4. One Step Closer (Howe, Wetton) - 4:18
  5. Time Again (Downes, Howe, Palmer, Wetton) - 4:47
  6. Wildest Dreams (Downes, Wetton) - 5:11
  7. Without You (Downes, Howe, Wetton) - 5:07
  8. Cutting It Fine (Downes, Howe, Wetton) - 5:40
  9. Here Comes the Feeling (Howe, Wetton) - 5:43

Unreleased songs

Initially unpublished:

  1. Ride Easy (it then appeared as the B-side of the first single hit Heat of the Moment )
  2. Over and Over (a Steve Howe composition that was never completed)

Remarks

  • The hit single Heat of the Moment was written and recorded as the last track because John Kalodner wanted another single from the band. The verse is from Downes, the refrain from Wetton (originally in 6/8 time). Steve Howe had to be persuaded to use the powerful guitar chords at the beginning of the piece.
  • The verse of Sole Survivor goes back to Wetton, the chorus was composed by him and Downes.
  • One Step Closer is a Steve Howe composition to which Wetton only contributed the text
  • Time Again is the only piece on the Asian debut that all four musicians were equally involved in creating.
  • Wildest Dreams is the first in a series of anti-war songs that Asia recorded during her career.
  • Without You is a Wetton piece arranged by Howe.
  • At the end of Cutting It Fine there is a long keyboard part Downes' which, due to its bolero rhythm, bears the title Bolero , which is not recorded on the album .
  • Here Comes the Feeling was made some time before the Asian debut. The French progressive rock band Atoll released a version recorded together with Wetton on their album Rock Puzzle (1979)
  • Ride Easy was only released as the B-side of the first single hit Heat of the Moment to make it harder for black copiers to put all the Asian songs together on a cassette.

Cover

For the cover design, at the suggestion of Steve Howes, the fantasy artist Roger Dean was hired , who had already designed many covers for his former band Yes. The picture shows a sea ​​serpent chasing a large, silver-gray ball . Fans of the band have tried to recognize the letters A, S and I in the coils of the snake, but Dean denies having deliberately integrated the band name into the picture in this way.

In order to avoid any reference to Yes, Dean designed a triangular Asia logo based on the almost symmetrical shape of the word "ASIA", which was as dissimilar as possible to the round Yes logo. This logo is still used by the band today.

occupation

style

Due to Geffen's strategy of orienting itself towards the American mainstream rock market, Wetton, Downes and Stone, who supported this line, turned their attention to catchy, radio-friendly melodies. Asia played the so-called stadium rock on their debut album , which under the genre name "Adult-oriented Rock" ( AOR ) would become very successful in America in the 1980s. What is striking is the great pathos of some melody inventions, which can mainly be traced back to John Wetton ( Without you , Only Time will tell ) and similar pieces by the group Queen .

Strongly distorted guitar sounds, aggressive drumming and other style elements oriented towards hard rock or heavy metal are missing. The guitar sounds are clear and Downes' various keyboard sounds dominate.

The songs range in length from 3:54 ( Heat of the Moment ) to 5:43 ( Here Comes the Feeling ), which is typical for the pop and rock market , but not for progressive rock . Nevertheless, some of his style elements can be heard on the album , such as odd bars ( Heat of the Moment begins in 10/4 time), rhythmic ambiguity (the beginning of Time Again ), numerous rhythm changes in a short time (on Time Again the Measure between 4/4, 12/8, 9/8, 6/8 and 3/4, Sole Survivor begins with seven 4/4 measures, followed by a 3/3, three 4/4 measures, a 5 / 4-bar, then again 4 even bars, etc.), technical virtuosity (especially from Steve Howe, rarely also from Carl Palmer, see again Time Again ), the use of elements of classical music (see the bolero part of Cutting it fine ) and an unusual variety of (especially guitar and keyboard) sounds (see also Bolero ). Compared to the band's later albums without Howe, the guitarist's many ornamental accents, which he usually placed between Wetton's verses, are striking.

These stylistic elements gradually disappeared on the following albums Alpha and Astra , they are almost completely absent on the Asia albums of the Downes-Payne era. They were n't picked up on the comeback album of the original line-up Phoenix (2008) either.

successes

The market-driven mix of styles quickly found its audience, and Asia, with a debut album sold seven million times, was one of the most successful bands of 1982, as well as one of the style-defining bands of the adult-oriented rock ( AOR ) genre . Supported by Geffen's large-scale advertising campaign, Asia surprisingly managed to place itself in the top regions of many music charts , despite not too positive reviews . The album was the best-selling album in the US in 1982 and number 1 on the US Billboard charts for 9 weeks . There no less than six singles were released from Asia : Heat of the Moment , Sole Survivor , Wildest Dreams , Here comes the Feeling , Only Time will tell and Time Again . Heat of the Moment became a worldwide hit. The video for this was shot by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (formerly at 10cc ).

The German-language progressive rock website Babyblaue Seiten has the album in the reference list "Guide: NeoProg of the 80s", but comments that the name of the album is "more temporal than by definition" and that the album is "musically seen [ …] Should, however, question critically ”, since the question remains,“ whether this collection of star musicians under less commercial auspices could not have created something much more interesting than this mainstream-oriented album ”. It is judged positively that the album contains “melodically beautiful, albeit simple bombast songs”.

Singles on the US Billboard charts

  • 1982 Heat of the Moment Mainstream Rock No. 1
  • 1982 - Here Comes the Feeling - Mainstream Rock - No. 40
  • 1982 - Only Time Will Tell - Mainstream Rock - No. 8
  • 1982 Sole Survivor Mainstream Rock No. 10
  • 1982 Time Again Mainstream Rock No. 43
  • 1982 Wildest Dreams Mainstream Rock No. 28
  • 1982 - Heat of the Moment - Pop Singles - No. 4
  • 1982 - Only Time Will Tell - Pop Singles - No. 17

tour

Due to the surprising success, they had booked a tour that was too short in a hall that was too small. It only lasted from April to October 1982, and it was decided to get back to the studio as soon as possible at the end of the tour to work on a follow-up album that would surpass the success of the debut.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guide: NeoProg of the 80s (on babyblaue-seiten.de )

Sources and web links

  • Dancha, Kim: My own time. The authorized biography of John Wetton. Schnecksville, PA (USA) 1997. ISBN 0-9654847-1-8 .
  • Forrester, George / Martyn Hanson / Frank Askew: Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The show that never ends. A musical biography. London 2001. ISBN 1-900924-17-X .
  • Gallant, David: Asia. The Heat Goes On. The Authorized Asia Biography. Summerside, PEI, Canada 2001. ISBN 0-9688584-0-6 .
  • Gallant, David: Asia. Heat of the moment. New York 2007. ISBN 978-0-9796881-0-2 .
  • Edward Macan: Endless Enigma. A musical biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Chicago, Illinois 2006. ISBN 0-8126-9596-8 .