Asia
XXX

30 years after their debut was released and about to release their 15th studio album (counting both 'Archiva' albums and the semi compilation 'Then And Now'), I'd never thought I'd ever get to say this but I actually feel somewhat disappointed by this Asia album. Now, I'm not saying that 'XXX' is a bad album or that Asia has released an album equal in quality as snake shit, but without consciously expecting anything, I'd expected more… 'XXX' is strangely uneven in quality and the songs on this album gives both pure gold, some of the best songs I've heard by the band, and garbage-like things, some of the worst Asia songs I've heard. And that's what disappoints me… the level of drops they do is just so uncharacteristic from this band.

The title is of course not referring to the Vin Diesel film (or its sequels) and nor does it refer to anything of pornographic nature, which often is marked with the "xxx" epithet. The reason why this album is called 'XXX' is because it's released almost to the month 30 years after their debut album (and with the same line-up as on the debut) and XXX is 30 in Roman numerics. This is the third Asia album with the original setting after they re-united in 2006 following 20 years of different shapes where only Geoffrey Downes remained on all releases. But as I said, this is the third Asia album where Howe, Wetton and Palmer also are present again and this time they've even returned to the old Yes-alike cover art that most of us think belongs to the shape of the band. But it's no clear cut this one, I have mixed emotions about 'XXX'.

Overall I have see no bigger issues with 'XXX' and it opens strong with the two tracks Tomorrow The World and Bury Me In Willow - two slower songs where the later is a real ballad. After this is where the album starts to go wrong as two somewhat faster songs takes over in No Religion and Faithful. These songs are real disappointments, especially the later and in my opinion well below the Asia standard we always get. The album then gets better again with I Know How You Feel and the first single Face On The Bridge, which both are decent Asia songs but nothing in particular. However, the seventh track is a real memorable song, called Al Gatto Nero. It's a song with a great flow and they also sing much of the chorus in Italian. Then the album closes with Judas and Chost Of A Chance. Judas is a good song but neither this makes any bigger impressions but Ghost Of A Chance is a classic Asia ballad in the vein of their greatest ballads. Totally, these nine songs ends up in almost 50 minutes of classic Asia the way they did back in the earliest stage of their career, but mostly the slower paced part of it because it's not many of these 50 minutes that make hurry anywhere and the parts that do is the parts of the album that feels least appealing so you better like the slow Asia to appreciate 'XXX'.

Production-wise and performance-wise we get an album that, not surprisingly, feels well made to the smallest details and I really like that they've gone back to the classic cover look which we haven't seen for 10 or 15 years (depending on wether you think 'Aura' is good enough or if you need to go all the way back to 'Arena' from 1996). The music is completely free from flaws and performance dips but you can't deny the fact that if you like more than just slow or at the most mid-tempo songs, you don't get very far with this album. The really energetic and fast songs are all missing and the fastest songs there is on 'XXX' lacks that real quality so you don't get too much to cheer for, which results in an album ending up somewhat below that quality product Asia albums normally are when you also consider the ups and down in overall song quality, despite the individual and collective performance being spotless.

I can say this: 30 years is hugely impressive and 15 albums just as impressive, especially when you add all the live releases to the equation. With this album I think they return to square one for real, but is this really something good? Well… Only time will tell.