Asia
Gravitas

Asia are back, now with an album that is a lot more searchable on the interweb than its predecessor XXX. Guess what happens when you punch that thing in, Gravitas does not have the same problem. It looks the part of an Asia album, it follows the lineage of style from the earlier ones I think. But things are a bit new in the Asia camp, Steve How has retired and in has a new guitarist called Sam Coulson arrived. So the quartet is 25% new this time. New and fresh are generally not what one says about Asia’s music as it is most of the time very inoffensive arenarock that is a bit too safe to really rock. They have some nice hits but most of the time their albums are quite good but also quite boring. Which of course you would expect this new arrival to be as well, why break the trend?

And musically it feels very much like business as usual, it is arenarock with a pop-rock feel to it. Simple and catchy songs, some ballad, some midtempo, the usual thing in the genre. Nothing that really stands out much. Classic sound, fresh and modern production. I would say excellent production. Brilliant vocal presence from Wetton, just as usual. The music is decentlu varied and I think they manage to keep their 48 minutes of typical Asia music interesting through and through. It is what you expect in most parts, but Asia makes catchy music that fails to really stick except for Heat of the Moment which probably is the only memorable Asia song to date. Now then, do they change that? the odds of that aren’t favourable but sometimes the unexpected happens.

At first I thought it was business as usual, playing it in the car listen through and nothing felt that exciting. Then when I picket the next album I started to feel the urge to play it again because opening track Valkyrie just kept going in my head. So I did play it again and this time Nyctophobia joined Valkyrie in my head creating a bit of a harmonious dissonance in my head. The album got to me, for the first time an Asia album actually got to me. I have heard all their albums and none has done this before, they just play trough and then you forget them, the song Heat of the Moment was the only exception before. Now I just cannot shake Valkyrie and I know from my experience as a reviewer that songs which can be played so many times and still not leave my head will last for a very long time. Nyctophobia is just as good.

I think that for the first time I find myself really liking something by Asia, a band that to me always have been this dull supergroup of amazing musicians making no effort to create amazing music. This time they do, sure they do have some snooze pills in there but the two songs I have already mentioned along with Joe DiMaggio’s Glove really makes an impression, the title track isn’t too shabby either. I think that we can actually end on the bombshell that for the first time ever Asia actually rocks. Isn’t that great?

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