Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Asia

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An okay collection of Asia's early hits with bassist/vocalist John Wetton. Geffen's Heat of the Moment: The Very Best of Asia is a lot better (despite a few track edits, you get your money's worth.)

If I were to describe Asia's early sound (1982-1991), I would say that they sounded like a more commercial UK, with the production and ballads of Foreigner, mixed with fierce instrumental breaks and layered with gorgeous Beach Boys-style harmonies on the choruses. The debut album is solid and almost-perfect; later albums got more watered-down and sappy; by 1992 there was different lineups, diversifying the sound and creating a smorgasboard of pop/prog influences. Lyrics mostly reflected the endless cycles of love lost and found, with occasional forays into Sci-Fi and war. In other words, if you're young (or young at heart), these songs have the ability to really grab you. If they do, it can make you immune to the angry thrashing of those fat and bald 70's prog zealots.

If you're new or unfamiliar with Asia, this a good grab if you're unwilling to splurge for bigger or better collections. If you're hungry or curious for their later world music/classic rock/prog-metal stuff in the 90's, grab Anthology. If you want full albums, start with the 1982 debut.

This is one of the greatest compilation CD's I've ever come across for any band. I am like a lot of people when it comes to such things; I only know two or three of the songs before I buy the thing, and I only listen to the others about once. This disc is different. I still only knew the first two tracks, but I grew to love the others after hearing them just once! The disc offers good coverage of the Wetton years of Asia, before all the breakups. It includes several songs from each of the early and middle albums, and puts them in order of their debut (Asia, Alpha, Astra, Then & Now). Geffen and 20th Century did an excellent job mastering the audio; it sounds excellent. Asia is never given due credit, but this band pioneered many of the aspects of music we take for granted today. This compilation offers all the songs one would ever need to hear to understand why the last sentence is 100% true. Happy listening.

A good introduction to a great band. It's too bad that "Here Comes The Feeling" and "Wildest Dreams" from their debut were not included. The second album "Alpha" is well represented, including the rare b-side Daylight. The third album "Astra" is also well chosen. The disc ends with the one key track from the "Now & Then" disc. So overall, it's a good collection, but my suggestion would be to buy ASIA GOLD instead. Better value for the $.

While this disc contains a decent selection of Asia's songs, it doesn't actually carry the Compact Disc logo. This usually happens when labels try some bogus copy protection scheme on a disc, and this one is no exception. It looks like they have put a fake, empty data partition on the CD to trip up people who try and rip the tracks to MP3 on their computers.

It's a shame, because this is an otherwise fine collection of songs.

While it is still possible to rip the songs to MP3 (by recording the tracks one at a time and then ripping them), the annoyance involved means you are better off just buying a different greatest hits collection such as the Definitive Collection or Asia Gold.

On a personal note, I also missed the presence of the Roger Dean artwork that graced the original album covers.

Great band, great songs.Very good purchase.
Booklet could be more informative, but ok.

If you had to buy just one ASIA best of disc, this is the one.

A good collection of Asia's songs, better than THEN & NOW, but not as good as HEAT OF THE MOMENT, THE VERY BEST OF ASIA. The later has a lot more songs.