Phoenix (2008)
1. Never Again
2. Nothing's Forever
3. Heroine
4. Sleeping Giant/No Way Back/Reprise
5. Alibis
6. I Will Remember You
7. Shadow of a Doubt
8. Parallel Worlds/Vortex/Deya
9. Wish I'd Known All Along
10.Orchard of Mines
11.Over and Over
12.An Extraordinary Life
It is a rare phenomenon in the world of rock that a band, with only two initial albums to its name, should reassemble twenty-five years later and still command attention. That Asia managed to do so is a testament less to the strength of their discography than to the collective pedigree of its members. Comprised of veterans from progressive rock giants—Yes, King Crimson, ELP, and The Buggles—Asia always had more to offer on paper than in practice. Their 1982 debut album was both a commercial and stylistic apex. What followed, however, rarely transcended the expectations it had set. Phoenix, then, marks both a reunion and a reappraisal.
Released in 2008, Phoenix was the first full studio album from the original lineup—John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer—since 1983’s Alpha. The very fact of its existence was enough to stir curiosity, if not widespread anticipation. Yet what emerges is a curiously uneven record: one that gestures towards former glories without entirely recapturing them, and one which suffers as much from its format as from its content.
Indeed, the transition from vinyl to CD plays no small role in the album’s flaws. Freed from the natural constraints of the 40-minute LP, Phoenix stretches past the hour mark—offering 64 minutes of material where perhaps 38 would have sufficed. As a result, the record feels bloated, its stronger moments diluted by passages of repetition and indulgence.
And yet, there are moments. Never Again, the opener, is a stirring return to form—vibrant, melodic, and unmistakably Asia. Tracks such as Heroine, Alibis, and the sprawling suite Parallel Worlds / Vortex / Deya harken back to the band’s earliest triumphs, capturing the blend of synth-washed grandeur and rock sensibility that first propelled them to stardom. The latter, clocking in at eight minutes, offers a surprising mix of textures and time shifts, and is arguably the most musically ambitious piece on the album.
But ambition does not always yield coherence. Sleeping Giant / No Way Back / Reprise—another extended suite—labors under the weight of its length, offering little in the way of melodic or structural development. What might have worked as a brief instrumental becomes a repetitive trudge through redundant keyboard lines. Elsewhere, Nothing’s Forever suffers from a near-total absence of rhythmic and harmonic variation, its monotony particularly glaring when sequenced directly after the rousing Never Again.
A note should be made of the songwriting. During the band’s hiatus, Wetton and Downes continued to collaborate under the Wetton/Downes banner—producing a series of little-heard albums that, nevertheless, bore a sonic kinship to classic Asia. Not coincidentally, it is the Wetton/Downes-penned tracks here that shine brightest. Songs credited to other configurations of the band members tend to lack focus and identity, serving as reminders that Asia’s best moments were always those that paired Wetton’s melodic instincts with Downes’ keyboard atmospheres.
In its totality, Phoenix is not a great album, but it is a meaningful one. It is a document of a band still finding its way back to itself—haltingly, inconsistently, but not without flashes of inspiration. Had it been trimmed, refined, and subject to greater editorial discipline, it might have stood as a worthy successor to the debut. As it stands, Phoenix is a return that promises more than it delivers, yet delivers just enough to justify the journey.
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