Phoenix

Phoenix is a memorable comeback album on which ASIA, restarted with the original lineup, again bound grand keyboards, detailed playing and memorable melody. The masters John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes and Carl Palmer reunited, and their technique, without pushing too far forward, is used to support the songs’ elation and flowing development. It drew great attention as a new album by the original lineup for the first time in roughly a quarter century. Big choruses and delicate interludes coexist, wrapping the 1980s-ASIA openness in a modern calm. Rather than ending as a mere reunion souvenir, a stance of carefully updating the band’s virtues breathes throughout. With John Wetton’s soaring voice and Geoff Downes’ magnificent keyboards vividly reviving the old chemistry, it is a full record that loudly announces the start of a new chapter for ASIA, the breathing of the four reunited members giving the whole a firm persuasiveness.