Aqua

Aqua is a restart album on which ASIA began moving with a new lineup, welcoming John Payne on vocals and bass. The keyboards of Geoff Downes — the only core member remaining — create a magnificent air, and varied guest musicians give each song a different color. In place of John Wetton, the face of the original period, Payne’s strong, soaring voice brought the band a new outline. Songs with large narrative and accessible vocal melodies coexist naturally, and the album shows the exploratory look of a restart period. Centered on Downes’ keyboards, it inherits the grandeur and refinement the old ASIA had while updating that expression with a new voice. Showing how the band would continue after the dissolution of the original lineup, it is a record of important meaning as the starting point of the second-era ASIA, with Downes’ consistent aesthetic keeping the band’s core across the change of lineup.