ASIA ALPHA WTF?

[yes123]

Gave this a spin after many years-wish I hadn`t.How could these prog heroes come up with this poppy crap?Unbelievable!
It´s neither good enough for the charts or accesible AOR-stuff.
The same year YES released 90125 and even if this was a new direction and not classic YES it´s lightyears from ALPHA.

[Dan Roth]

Gave this a spin after many years-wish I hadn`t.How could these prog heroes come up with this poppy crap?Unbelievable!
It´s neither good enough for the charts or accesible AOR-stuff.
The same year YES released 90125 and even if this was a new direction and not classic YES it´s lightyears from ALPHA.

I would suggest maybe not spinning Astra, their third album, then.

From Alpha, I still really enjoy "Midnight Sun", "Daylight", "Open Your Eyes" and the Howe-co-write "Lying to Yourself" B-side. I think the album suffers from much less Howe in the writing department.

[peterpyser]

I like Alpha.
Many other people like it too.

You're among the ones who don't like it.
Not everything is for everybody.

[stickman393]

A candidate for the "worst music encased in the best cover art" awards.

There are some good songs spoiled by terrible production. Asia never recovered and the reasons are well documented, but at least we'll always have the debut.

[Scott Bails]

I like Alpha. I wish they were able to spend more time on it, and the production is not great, but I like it for what it is.

[Rarebird]

I don't think I have problems with Alpha. But well, I also like Astra.

[arturs]

I like Alpha. I wish they were able to spend more time on it, and the production is not great, but I like it for what it is.

Basically my perspective as well. But with the production... I just don't get it. They had such a winning formula with the production from the debut. So clear and powerful. Much like with 90125 the production turned Asia's good songs into a great, commercially successful album. And then... They went all wimpy AOR with Alpha's production. Why? Why not simply duplicate the powerful sound of the debut? They already had the blueprint. It was just a matter of executing. And they botched it.

[Steve983]

Was it a case of the record company wanting a second album too soon before they had any decent songs? A bit like Peter Frampton's "I'm In You" maybe. Also many people just didn't buy it because they had already been caught out by the debut with it's high expectations of prog goodness but actually being quite wishy washy. I enjoyed the debut at the time and saw them at Wembley Arena which was fun but I never bought Alpha because what I heard of it was not encouraging.

[JJ88]

IMHO Alpha was a rushed follow-up. It didn't really move them forward artistically. Not horrible, and there's some good songs on it, but something of a let-down nevertheless. I don't like the single 'Don't Cry' that much. I think it definitely would have sounded old hat next to 90125, yes.

I do not care for Astra, by which time Howe had gone. The three reunion albums are all better than that IMHO...probably better than Alpha as well.

[Digital_Man]

I don't think I have problems with Alpha. But well, I also like Astra.

Same here. Alpha was sort of their "love album" with most songs being about love, unrequited love or something similar. Astra was in a metallish direction and with much more "bite" probably mostly due to the addition of a new guitarist. I never had a problem with either one.

[lazland]

I really like it. there are some class tracks on there which, as others have said, would have benefited from more care.

[Drake]

Is the Don’t Cry video ironic?

[SteveSly]

I would suggest maybe not spinning Astra, their third album, then.
ent.

I think "Astra" blows "Alpha" away.

[jefftiger]

Is the Don’t Cry video ironic?

I don't think that I've ever watched this before! Jungles and deserts. Is this Africa or Asia; oh, who cares! And that Egyptian girl sure looks British to me.

[Czyszy]

Don't Cry is almost a good song. The verses I find quite nice but the corny tasteless major key chorus ruins the track IMHO.

[peterpyser]

Reagrding the production, Mike Stone had to send his production master to the record label a handful of times because it was never judged satifactory, until he went for a 'Phil Spector like' sort of wall of sound version which finally pleased the label executives.

Personally, i like Alpha production very much, it adds a unique character to the songs which i like.
If you want to have an idea of what it could have sounded if it had been given the typical rock production go listen to 'Lying To Yourself' outtake which is very different production-wise, and imagine that same kind of production applied to all the other album tracks.

Also, the 2017 Audio Fidelity SACD edition of Alpha is the less 'instrumentally crowded' version you can find, if you have the opportunity to listen to it maybe you'll appreciate the album better.

[moecurlythanu]

I don't think that I've ever watched this before! Jungles and deserts. Is this Africa or Asia; oh, who cares! And that Egyptian girl sure looks British to me.

Jesus looks like a northern European in every painting I've ever seen, so it's all good.

[Soc Prof]

One of the Asia compilation sets had an account of the writing of this album. After the first tour, Howe went home to spend time with his family. Wetton and Downes were both bachelors, so they got together and started writing. They ended up writing the entire album, effectively shutting Howe out of the writing process.

I like "Midnight Sun" and "The Heat Goes On," but I find the rest of the songs pretty weak. Probably the thing I like best about the album are the sounds that Downes gets out of his arsenal of synths.

Alpha and Astra were both released for hi res dowload a few years ago. Strangely, the debut wasn't.

[bondegezou]

Is the Don’t Cry video ironic?

I think it's somewhat tongue in cheek.

Howe is the only one who gets to kiss the girl. I think Howe, Downes and Palmer all give acting a go, but Wetton's letting everyone else down.

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

What's wrong with Alpha is the pacing and the abundance of slow, sentimental tunes. It does have two of my favorite Asia songs, though, the wonderful Midnight Sun, which could almost have fit on Yes' Drama, and the rockin' The Heat Goes On which sees Downes in fine form on the Hammond.
Personally I think the follow-up, Astra, was actually stronger, despite the absence of Howe. It has a much more focused and powerful production, and a great mixture of the catchy (Go, for instance) and proggy (After the War, for instance). I also think Downes serves up a very fascinating mixture of synth sounds, including from the Fairlight.

[bondegezou]

What's wrong with Alpha is the pacing and the abundance of slow, sentimental tunes. It does have two of my favorite Asia songs, though, the wonderful Midnight Sun, which could almost have fit on Yes' Drama, and the rockin' The Heat Goes On which sees Downes in fine form on the Hammond.

"Midnight Sun" was played on the first Asia tour. Asia have been releasing some "official bootlegs" digitally, so there's this 1982 show on Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/album/7HuCWUoRt7mjIEX55S8Qyl , with "Midnight Sun".

[Top Cat]

I think a lot of the songs hold up much better when played live later in their career.
I sampled some of the album on YT scrolling through the songs to jog my memory, and they didn't do anything for me, not like they did hearing them on the car radio while driving back in the day.
When jumping through the songs, they come across borderline "bubble-gummy" to me. And has been written here, I think the production is horrible.

Although using Wikipedia can often not represent much of the truth in many things, I searched it to see if there was something in the post which could explain what happened with Alpha.
It seems once again, the Record Label is responsible for much of what is wrong with Alpha. The "suits" at the label wanted a quick followup to the success of the debut album Asia.
Seeking a quick profit, they rushed it, and told Wetton and Howe to write short commercial radio friendly songs.

[bondegezou]

I think a lot of the songs hold up much better when played live later in their career.
I sampled some of the album on YT scrolling through the songs to jog my memory, and they didn't do anything for me, not like they did hearing them on the car radio while driving back in the day.
When jumping through the songs, they come across borderline "bubble-gummy" to me. And has been written here, I think the production is horrible.

Although using Wikipedia can often not represent much of the truth in many things, I searched it to see if there was something in the post which could explain what happened with Alpha.
It seems once again, the Record Label is responsible for much of what is wrong with Alpha. The "suits" at the label wanted a quick followup to the success of the debut album Asia.
Seeking a quick profit, they rushed it, and told Wetton and Howe to write short commercial radio friendly songs.

I think the success of Asia surprised them and they wanted more pronto, but Wetton was too drunk and the band at odds.

[jrw]

"Midnight Sun" was played on the first Asia tour. Asia have been releasing some "official bootlegs" digitally, so there's this 1982 show on Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/album/7HuCWUoRt7mjIEX55S8Qyl , with "Midnight Sun".

I remember seeing them play Midnight Sun on the first tour and thought, “wow.” Then Alpha came out and Midnight Sun sounded much different than I remember. A couple of years go by, and I get a bootleg cassette of the first tour and hear Midnight Sun and think “why did they butcher this song on Alpha?” The original live version was longer, had different (and in my opinion better) lyrics in the verses, and a more progressive vibe.

In 2010, Asia released a live CD, “Spirit of the Night” from Cambridge in 2009. The version on that release is somewhat close to the version from the first tour.

An aside, during the first tour, all four members were playing keyboards on Geoff’s giant rig at the start of the song before moving back to their own instruments. I think some of that was for show though and some of them were not playing much if at all.

[Jaco]

I remember seeing them play Midnight Sun on the first tour and thought, “wow.” Then Alpha came out and Midnight Sun sounded much different than I remember. A couple of years go by, and I get a bootleg cassette of the first tour and hear Midnight Sun and think “why did they butcher this song on Alpha?” The original live version was longer, had different (and in my opinion better) lyrics in the verses, and a more progressive vibe.

In 2010, Asia released a live CD, “Spirit of the Night” from Cambridge in 2009. The version on that release is somewhat close to the version from the first tour.

An aside, during the first tour, all four members were playing keyboards on Geoff’s giant rig at the start of the song before moving back to their own instruments. I think some of that was for show though and some of them were not playing much if at all.

Agree re the above , saw this tour in 82 and Midnight Sun was a highlight . Palmer crouching down over possibly a drum machine. But I liked the bouncing groove set up Live I think in 7 time , somehow it lost that feel a bit the way CP played it on Alpha . I was disappointed , it was very short . I liked Open Your Eyes especially the outro but with Wetton singing heartfelt over the minimal strings initially , one of his great moments .