Music Banter - View Single Post - AOR: Anteater's Guide To The Best Of 80's Melodic Rock

Anteater · 01-06-2011, 08:15 AM

5.

Asia – S/T (1982)

1. Heat Of The Moment (3:54)
2. Only Time Will Tell (4:48)
3. Sole Survivor (4:51)
4. One Step Closer (4:18)
5. Time Again (4:48)
6. Wildest Dreams (5:11)
7. Without You (5:07)
8. Cutting It Fine (5:40)
9. Here Comes The Feeling (5:40)

When you think of 80's rock, there are a few albums that come to mind to nearly everyone who was growing up around that time. For a lot of people, those albums would probably consist anything by Journey, Survivor or possibly Van Halen after Sammy Hager took over lead vocals.

And yet despite the prominence of groups like those, in 1982 the top selling record in the U.S. was the draconically adorned self-titled from a bunch of prog. rock dinosaurs who decided to form a supergroup together. Thirteen years later, this same album would be 4x Platinum and even in the 2000's it gets referenced quite a bit in television and other media.

I'm talking about Asia's 1982 debut of course, which for a brief moment in time took over the world with a punchy little lead off single called 'Heat Of The Moment', and thus cemented itself in the DNA of popular culture forevermore.

So, a few of you are probably thinking as you read this -"Considering how well known this album is, why is it #5 over bands like Magnum?"

Well, for one thing, this album is still considered to be the single best selling AOR album of all time. It's prominence and subsequent influence over music for the rest of the decade is nearly inescapable, and therefore I consider it essential listening for those with an interest in this kind of music. And secondly, despite your average person's preconceptions about this album, it's one of the most instrumentally technical efforts in the 80's melodic rock canon thanks to presence of Yes's Steve Howe on guitar with his razor sharp improvisation, John Wetton (formally of King Crimson) with his bass and Carl Palmer of ELP on the drumkit. Helluva lineup all in all.

Putting it simply, Asia is arena-prog. The endless jamming you'd expect from a prog. band gets to raise its head now and then amongst nine relatively straight up pop-rock songs, and thus a contrast is created between the musicians and the songs themselves: they seem simple on the surface, but below the main melody line you'll be surprised at how busy some of what you hear is. Geoff Downes's keyboards certainly add to this impression with how he colours these tracks, like the opening flourish to 'Only Time Will Tell' or his work on 'Without You'.

John Wetton's vocals are the only thing that I could really see driving off melodic rock fans -- his timbre doesn't really fit this kind of music too well even at the best of times. However, even that perceived weakness ends up being part of the charm as you listen, contributing to a distinctive sound that not even Asia themselves were able to really capture again in their subsequent decades-long career. Probably because the songs would get more and more formulaic until John Payne took over as lead vocalist in the early 90's and brought some of the progginess back.

My verdict: forget 'Heat Of The Moment' (unless you already love the song that is) and give the rest of the record a fair shot. Regardless of what others might say, this is an early melodic rock classic that deserves its place in history as much as anything else you'll find.