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Title: Asia goes hair metal
Review: I wanted to like this album, but I just can't get into it. While it is a more consistent album than its predecessor Aqua, it is the least Asia-like album in their catalog. Unlike Aqua, which had a nice balance of keyboards and guitars, Aria has the guitars up front and the keys in the background. The combined effect is to sound like the 80s version of Deep Purple at best, or yet another hair metal band at worst. That's a shame, because Asia is not a hair metal band. To be fair, three of the Payne-era band's best songs are on this disc: Anytime, Feels Like Love, and Military Man. Things improved dramatically with the group's next release, Arena, so hopefully this is the low point for Asia.
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