Anthology

Asia | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 23, 1999)
• Original Release Date: February 9, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Original Masters UK
• ASIN: B00000HYY0
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,233 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Hunter

2. Only Time Will Tell

3. Arena

4. Anytime

5. Don't Cry

6. Aqua Part 1

7. Who Will Stop The Rain?

8. The Heat Goes On

9. Two Sides Of The Moon

10. Reality

11. Go

12. Feels Like Love

13. Someday

14. Heat Of The Moment

15. Military Man

16. Different Worlds

Editorial Reviews

Asia Anthology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Collection Of Asia 90s, February 15, 2000

By 

James A. Torsen (Anchorage, AK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anthology (Audio CD)

It's a good collection of the band's works during the 90s. I'd prefer the original release though, but do to a court order by John Wetton, the band had to remove the original songs and replace them with the re-recorded ones. I think the best moments on this disc are "Military Man" "Arena" "Two Sides Of The Moon" and "Who Will Stop The Rain". Universal is planning a collection of the Wetton years this spring, in case you don't like the John Payne era.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Progressing into the 90's, June 10, 2004

By 

Prog Nerd (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anthology (Audio CD)

Anthology was my introduction to 90's Asia, and it won me over just by sheer value for what I got. Think about it...it has every Asia album (up to '97) sampled with a few songs each, plus two new cuts. What's not to like?

As others have mentioned, you do get re-recordings of 80's Asia classics ("Heat of the Moment", "Only Time Will Tell", "Don't Cry", "The Heat Goes On", "Go"), and while some bits of them are good, I still prefer the original recordings. I must say, though, Payne does a superb job with "Go". "The Hunter" is good, but again, I prefer GTR's original. The Asia version is just different. The other new track, "Different Worlds" is fantastic...one of Asia's most haunting and passionate songs, with fantastic lyrics.

The only missteps really are the lack of more tracks from the Arena album, a few typos, and a mis-printed track time for "Aqua Part I", which, by the way, is an edit. (The original had the sounds of rain and thunder at the end.) The CD booklet has small concert photos, and lyrics to all songs.

Musically, the 90's were probably Asia's mostly honestly "progressive" period. They started a little shaky on Aqua (1992), sort've bridging from their 80's to 90's sound (thankfully all of the best songs from Aqua are here on this disc), then moving to the more polished, operatic and hard-edged Aria (1994), and then doing a total 180-degree turn with Arena (1996), which was full of smooth 70's-style classic rock harmonies, Latin and Middle-Eastern rhythms, and dark 8-9 minute prog-metal mini-epics.

If you're curious about 90's Asia, pick this up. If you're new to Asia period and are on a budget, get this and Geffen's Heat of the Moment: The Very Best of Asia 1982-90, and you'll be set. If you have more cash to blow, get Anthologia and Axioms, both double-disc sets.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good album gone bad from brown nosing., June 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Anthology (Audio CD)

I bought this album having abandoned Asia for years since John Wetton left. I bought "Anthology" thinking it would be a good synopsis of the newer Asia material. Surprisingly, the half of the tracks weren't bad, and actually grew on me quite a bit after about 3 listenings. However, the re-engineered Asia songs from the Wetton era were horrible. It's not that Payne is a bad singer, either. The engineering was hideous. Each of those songs sounds as if it was re-recorded in a metal storage shed. It was if they were trying to duplicate the natural echo of Wetton's voice, but ended up with a corny echo of everything. The worst engineering and remixing of music I have ever heard. They should have abandoned the old stuff and created an anthology of the Payne era, which could easily have stood on its own without the brown-nosing attempt to lure original Asia fans.