Asia-XXX

Frontiers Records
2012

Anyone else remember how good Asia used to be? Whatever happened to that? Well, it turns out that "XXX" is not that bad...or as bad as I half expected it to be. I know, crazy talk right? Maybe just maybe since this is the third album by Asia since the reunion of the original lineup (Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton) they might just start to get things right?.
Well....yes, and no. Not sure yet which one though. Sure, you can be forgiven for being confused about the album. Is it supposed to be old school British rock or just melodic rock? Or both?. For the record everything sounds good thanks to the Mike Paxman (who also worked on the band’s latest effort “Omega) and his production work. "XXX" finds keyboardest Geoff Downes in fine form and Steve Howe plays some wonderful post-classic rock solos. Just not enough guitars shine through though to make this really click. Carl Palmer (drum) and John Wetton (bass, vocals) are fine here too. What it comes down to it is. When the band looks backwards to where they started off then this is a good album. When they try to emulate modern melodic rock it doesn't do anything to make me want to see it stick around. Is it worthwhile? Asia fans who have followed them through thick and thin will love this album if only for the fact that it seems as though they are getting back to their roots. Casual fans might want to wait a few albums though to see if they can work all the kinks out.