Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent value and sound quality., April 24, 2007
Asia was a supergroup comprised of ex-King Crimson bassist/vocalist John Whetton, ex-Yes guitarist Steve Howe, ex-Buggles keyboardist(and one time Yes member in 1980) Geoff Downes and ELP drummer Carl Palmer.
They exploded out of the gate in 1982 with their self titled debut that saw huge success due to the huge singles Heat of the Moment & Only Time Will Tell. The album went multi-platinum and a massive tour ensued. Unfortunately, the band would never match that initial success as their 1983 follow-up Alpha would stall after barely going platinum. Band fights followed, John Whetton was for a short time replaced by ELP bassist/vocalist Greg Lake, John was then brought back in 1984 but Steve Howe ended up walking at that point to be replaced by ex-Krokus(!) guitarist Mandy Meyers.
They then released the 1985 commercial disaster Astra and would break up soon thereafter. Keyboardist Geoff Downes would put Asia back together with a revolving lineup of musicians in the 90's after a brief and unsuccessfull attempt at a comeback and the original 4 members would finally get back together for a hugely successful reunion tour in 2006.
This 2 disc Gold anthology comprises their 1980's geffen records output in the form of all the tracks from the 1982 debut, 1983's Alpha and 1985's Astra. Also, all of the B-sides are present as well in addition to the 2 new studio tracks that were on the 1990 retrospective Then & Now.
All of the tracks are remastered in crystal clear sound. Some purists might cry foul over the fact that mainly on disc 1, the engineer faded out the songs a few seconds earlier to cram 18 songs on that disc (disc one is 79 min. 56 seconds long and disc 2 is 79 min. 26 seconds long) but it isn't noticeable at all. The songs aren't any of the horribly edited single versions as well. They just fade out a bit quicker which is understandable for them being able to cram everything onto just 2 discs. You get 36 tracks with 18 on each disc.
The booklet features a very insightful/informative essay on the band's 1980's Geffen era in addition to some priceless vintage band member photos.
Now, some people might remember that Universal/Geffen already released this package in the form of 2002's Anthologia 20th anniversay collection. That one lacks the great pictures but includes the essays.
I had read that this Gold was just simply a re-pressing-re-packaging of the Anthologia set. At first it seemed that way, but I did seem to notice that the sound quality on this gold edition is actually clearer and punchier than the Anthologia remasters. Also, there was an error on track 9 on Disc 1 of Anthologia in which during the song, the sound in the left channel would drop out for about 3 to 4 seconds. I don't know if that was a pressing error or what, but it has been fixed on this Gold edition.
The differences are subtle but I do think that these are in fact updated/corrected masters as everything sounds cleaner and some of the noises/pops that were present in the Anthologia masters are gone as well. So, I would go with the Gold release for this reason in addition to the band photos that aren't in the Anthologia release. Basically, this is a very classy package and considering that you're getting remastered versions of their 1st 3 albums (which are their best stuff anyway) in addition to B-sides and the 2 studio tracks off of their 1990 compilation, this is a steal for people who like well performed and smart pop-rock of the highest order. I know that a lot of people find Asia cheesy but oh well, it's their loss. They were a great band.
Highly recommended!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Just For The 40 Year Old Virgin!, March 24, 2007
Curse that movie for turning one of my favorite childhood bands into a punchline! Asia's legacy deserves better credit than that.
Oh well.
Anyway, if you ever owned any of their first three albums (Asia, Alpha, Astra, or Then And Now:the first Greatest Hits), and still want to listen to those classic songs, you'll be better off buying this well deserved upgrade. First off, if you own the original CD versions of these albums (especially Alpha), you won't believe how much better the sound is now! Not just in overall volume, but in clarity and separation also. For example, listen for Palmer's cymbal pinging 5 minutes into "Open Your Eyes" here, it really jumps out at you compared to being barely audible on the original CD release. Little bits like that really show the studio prowess these guys had that now with the proper digital mastering can clearly show. All these songs, along with the three B-Sides not on the original CD releases (trivia: even though "Daylight" was a cassette extra back in the 80's, it was NOT included on the original CD version!) have never sounded better, and that's including all the compilations before Gold too..even the recent ones! You want the best sounding classic Asia, this is your greatest choice.
As for any downfalls to this release, it's few. Gold's album cover is by far the least inspired Asia cover (usually we get that great Roger Dean artwork on each, but now they're turned into very tiny pictures inside of Gold's 15 page booklet) and because each of the two CD's are over 79 minutes long, there's a slight crossfading in between some of the Astra songs (no big deal, you'll hardly notice), and ALL the spaces in between EACH track have been shortened to a second to even less. And oh yeah, the last studio Asia track to date original vocalist John Wetton was a part of, 1990's "Kari-Anne", isn't on here, but shouldn't be because this is a Geffen Records retrospective and that was released on Rhino Records' 1991 "Asia Live:09-X1-90 Mockba" album.
Either way, if you're over thirty, Asia:Gold will bring back great memories and more clearly than ever before. For those you were too young to remember Asia back in their heyday, here's two things:
1) Towards the end of the movie "The 40 Year Old Virgin", when Andy is trying to catch up with Trish's car on his bicycle, the song playing is called "Heat Of The Moment". That's Asia, and the song is the first song on Asia:Gold.
2) Y'know that annoying keyboardish humming roar at the beginning of every THX (The Audience Is Listening) spot on some DVD's and in movie theatres? That is actually the intro to "Countdown To Zero" off of Asia's third album "Astra". It's on here too.
That's it. I'm happy with it. You will be too.
P.S.: Almost forgot, starting in 1992 & ending in 2004, keyboardist Geoff Downes hired entirely all new members and brought back Asia, turning them into a new-age sounding version of Winger (just awful), and thankfully NONE of those songs are represented here! That version of Asia has many albums and their own Best Of's but be warned, they are NO Asia, Asia:Gold IS! Enjoy!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Corrects for the failures of the "Anthology" collection., August 4, 2005
This is the same collection as the "Anthology" set that was issued a couple of years ago...but this time they got it right and went back and cleaned up the set and digitaly remastered everything....Excellent collection featuring all of the works of Asia from the Geffin years.
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