Asia, Alpha
The first Asia album I bought has Asia's best cover--and one of Roger Dean's best pieces of album artwork.
The music was catchy, more so than most admirers of the band's prog origins wanted. The pop feel of Alpha went beyond even the radio-friendly sounds of the eponymous debut> Sure, it attracted plenty of new listeners (particularly females, lulled by John Wetton's smooth voice on ""Don't Cry" and "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes"), but rock fans who remembered the heights of Yes, ELP, and King Crimson could only hope for better days ahead.
The stunning cover brings to mind sci-fi novels of Earth-like worlds, a theme that utterly fails to play out in the banal lyrics about relationships.
Oh well, it's still nice to look at.
posted by David Amulet at
2:59 PM
1 Comments:
Roger Dean continues to make cool covers for this band and I can't help but wonder why he embarrasses himself to be associated with them. Compared to the last Asia album, Alpha is a gem, but compared to the records made by these guys before they were Asia, it's pretty rotten.
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