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I have not suffered through that one...yet.

The thing about Calling All Stations was that everyone knew right from the start that it was not going to match up to anything, even From Genesis to Revelation. Without Phil, the instant radio airplay stuff that could have it's moments was gone, and any attempt to return to the old style was not going to cut it without someone like Peter to really have some tale to tell. From what I heard, it was a very pale imitation of modern AOR that was marked Cut Out right from the start, forgotten by about the next month. I did hear that it was a hit in some parts of Europe, though.

In comparison to the two other albums in discussion here...

ELP's tanker was their first real studio effort in years, not counting the Works collections, and until we saw the cover, there was a lot of expectation to see if they could pull it off one more time. Still, considering that Works 2 was also a Dollar Bin wonder, many were possibly not that surprised. Love Beach Jogging Shorts must have filled some Goodwills soon after.

With The Clash, they still had Joe Strummer, but with a lot of "Crap" that could not be cut from the recording sessions, a lot of it Manager-related from what I remember, even his words and passionate singing could not cover up the fact that it was a half-baked affair. Some clips I heard on You Tube, however, showed that if Joe and Paul were to be left alone with the new crew, it may not have been as bad as it turned out. Still..."This Is England" remains the song we can still talk about without cringing.

I should try and set a Poll for Most Disappointing Album. Maybe start up a Bad Album Wars!

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Love Beach - It's the sound of a bunch of guys in the studio, contract filling, and not giving a crap. For every millisecond that Greg's not singing about his backstage conquest, Keith goes on some major whoop-fest in a Peter Pan style. Ice Skating gone mental!

Sounds about right!

Unknown Soldier

No comment really, what can I add here.......Is it the worst album ever recorded?

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Key

I wouldn't necessarily say worst. But it's definitely a contender for one of the most disappointed albums released by a big name.

Howard the Duck

if you want a good Clash-related album from that era, check out Big Audio Dynamite's This is Big Audio Dynamite (Mick Jones) - the cut and paste technique was highly influential on people like Beck

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Oh yeah, the first two B.A.D albums were, and actually still are, something for people to hear if they're interested in that technique.

To those just tuning in - Mick Jones was The Clash's big fan of the early Hip Hop scene and the "Radio Clash" EP (The full four parts/four remixes of it) was a major step in his progression towards B.A.D in my opinion.

Key

Asia have a new album coming out in the next couple months. The original lineup as well:



Sounds really ****ing good.

Trollheart

Asia are one of my favourite bands in that spectrum, though I would have to disagree with whoever said (think it was US) that the debut was better than the first two. I listened to the two hits on that and after that thought it fell sharply in quality. As a matter of fact, the last few tracks are really filler material. "Alpha", on the other hand, showed a much better understanding of what was wanted: a few love songs, some lengthy keyboard passages (have you listened to Downes on "The heat goes on"?) and some hard(ish) rockers. "Astra" sort of followed the same lines ("Rock and roll dreams" is a great song) but again tailed off towards the end.

I personally feel their "comeback", from "Aqua" through to about "Silent nation" (not inclusive) is their best period. The albums during that time (for those who want/need to/don't know, that's Aqua, Aria, Arena, Aura, and of course the two Archiva sets) are some of their best, and it's perhaps telling that once they dropped the "begin-and-end-in-A" idea --- how they kept that going so long is a mystery to me --- the quality began to fall. I personally think that although SN is a decent album it's just that: decent, not great, and I could always rely on an Asia album just to find its way into my collection on release, as I was never disappointed with any of them. "Phoenix" went a huge way to redressing the balance, and though I've only really listened to "Omega" once, I like what I hear. Can't wait for the new one!

For those who have an insatiable need to know, I don't like ELP so won't be commenting on the "other" topic in this thread...

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Joe the Shmo

Strangely enough, I'm a bigger closet Asia fan haha

Anteater

As far as Asia goes, I always felt that the self-titled and Alpha were the best from their initial 80's period, while Aqua and Arena proved to be their two best 90's records with Payne at the mic.

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