Track Listing

1. Never Again
2. Nothing's Forever
3. Heroine
4. Sleeping Giant/No Way Back/Reprise
5. Alibis
6. I Will Remember You
7. Shadow Of A Doubt
8. Parallel Worlds/Vortex/Deya
9. Wish I'd Known All Along
10. Orchard Of Mines
11. Over And Over
12. Extraordinary Life
13. Extraordinary Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29271 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition

Customer Reviews

A FINE RETURN
Although I'd liked some of Mr Payne's work with Asia, for me John Wetton's voice is one of the hooks that got me into Asia when they started 25 years ago.

His solo material was generally a good listen, and I enjoyed the "Icon" albums. This, however, is better still. A good mix of classic Asia-of-old material & more modern sounding prog rock with some really fine instrumental work, particularly from Steve Howe (for whom the years may be taking their toll aesthetically judging by the photo on the back cover, but he can still play extremely competently).

A number of highlights already mentioned by other reviewers, but the two 8 minute mini-operas do stand out. A thoroughly enjoyable listen for Asia fans and new recruits alike.

Excellent!!!
Two words to sum up this CD: Quite simply they are "BUY IT!"

This album draws on much of what made the "Classic" Asia line up so special in the 80's with the releases of Asia and Alpha. However it has a sprinkle of freshness bringing it all up to date.

The song writing is excellent - in fact I don't think there is one bad song here. It's been playing non stop at home and in my car since I got it.

Wetton's voice sounds as great as ever, and the playing and production values are as high as you would expect from a band of this calibre. I really can't fault it.

So what are you waiting for........BUY IT!

Asia's Greatest Nix
Although loving Never Again I've had to take drastic action to save me going off it quickly - with my MD player I've removed 6 of the 20 sung Never Agains and the second and third sung choruses, and my final almost 4 minute version sounds even better without needless repetition. Asia copy themselves on the guitar intro, which is rather ominous for the remainder of Phoenix. On Nothing's Forever, the instrumentation after the Beach Boyish start rudely interrupts what is a lovely song. Heroine is a great tune, but the lyrics make it unlistenable to me, because having become an Asia fan through the poppy Buggles route I'm not shock proof enough to cope with a lyric with razor blade and heroine in it. I'll leave track 4 comments to anyone who likes it. I hope the melody in the verse of Alibis grows more on me because I like everything else about it. The same almost goes for I Will Remember You, in which one 2 or 3 times sung line is the same words and tune as in an Abba song called I Wonder -
"these streets and these houses" and this part of an Abba melody is repeated in the flute solo! Should Have Seen It Coming is a good ELO like track. I'll need more listens to decide about the 3 part track 8, but the guitar solo sounds just like part of My Boy by Elvis and John's singing is like Paul McCartney. Songs 9 and 10 wash over me, but on the latter John now sounds like the REM singer. I like the melodic Over And Over. My favourite is Extraordinary Life, which has the extreme of beauty and sadness in the intro. middle eight and instrumental, and rousing ELO sounding chorus. This would have been a top 10 single in the early eighties.