Disco de Asia: “Aqua”

Aqua is a musical masterpiece and placed ASIA back to the top of their game in the early 90's. "Who will stop the Rain" and many other tracks on the album are quite simply superb. Payne and Downes are an awesome combo and album after album have proved to be the best at what they do - writing great meaningful, sweeping, and powerul music. Buy the rest of their albums since (especially 'Aura') and you won't be dissapointed. Aqua is a must have album.

I had found this cd used in a bookstore for 5 dollars. I heard the song Who Will Stop The Rain on the internet and loved it and thought it was one of Asia's best songs. Also me being in love with the cover art I decided to finaly get it because I do love Asia but this was a new Asia. Wetton was gone and in comes some joker looking guy named John Payne. As the other reviewers have stated he looks absolutley embarrasing in his leather vest and top hat along with Geoffrey Downes. They both looked like they were playing in a bad 80s hair metal band and I hate to say it but some of this music really sounds like it. The album starts off great with a nice instrumental piece called Aqua I. It starts off with the sound of waves and then keyboards come in with Steve Howe playing acoustic spanish sounding guitar. Then it's onto Who Will Stop The Rain. I'm not sure if this song was a single or not but it should have been since this is the most radio sounding song on the album. It's a good straight pop rocker with a harmonizing chorus and somewhat of an african sounding chant at the end. Unfortunutly after that the album takes a turn and the music sounds boring and like I said very cheesy hair metal like. I'm not sure what Downes and Payne were thinking when they made this album. Another big disapoint ment is that Carl Palmer and Steve Howe aren't on all of this. There are other session musicians palying guitar and bass and there is also another heavy metal looking guitar player named Al Piterli. I'm really not sure how much Carl plays on here but this ended up being his last album until the 2008 reunion album Phoenix. With the first John Payne Asia album they didn't get off to a good start. The only thing that keeps this album from being completly terrible is Who Will Stop The Rain which is why it get's an extra star. I will touch on the cover again. This is probably my favorite Asia album cover. i thought the fact that the artist gave a dolphin wings was really cool in this under water spacey world. i love everything about the cover and was surprised to find out that it wasn't painted by Roger Dean but by an artist named Rodney Matthews. Too me Rodney's work is similar to Roger's. The fact that this magnificent cover is on this album is a huge disapointment. A cover this good deserves to be on an amazing album. Asia had a ways to go before they had made a decent album with John Payne. Their next album, Aria, was much worse then this and once again had a very hair metal look and sound.

This was the first studio album with John Payne. He had started working with Geoffrey Downes in 1988 on session work. He was picked to replace John Wetton. Some fans weren't happy about this. I didn't even wanna know about this at first. My first copy was a French import (MusiDisc) I found. I wish I kept it, though it was scratched when I found it. Then I had the US edition (JRS/Pyramid/BMG), which had tracks rearranged and "Little Rich Boy" removed for some reason. Then I find this edition, with a bonus track that's already on "Archiva Volume 2". The sound was improved though. Then InsideOut released the latest edition in the West.

The albums open with an acoustic guitar solo from Steve Howe. Carl Palmer also returns for a while, making it another 3/4 of the original lineup. John Payne makes Asia his own, reinventing it for the '90s, though the touring lineup looked like glam metal. To boot, "Aqua" didn't even chart here (though it went to #1 in Japan), with grunge changing the rules. Asia prevailed to a loyal following since with Payne & Co.

Wetton's years was over and Asia got a new singer, whose name was John Payne. He replaced Wetton's place as well as it was possible. Aqua shows that Asia's era was not going to end in the early 1990s. This comeback album has many marvelous ja exciting moments. My favourite tracks are outstanding "Who Will Stop the Rain?" and terrific "Someday". I recommand 'Aqua' those people who like to listen catchy rock music

"Aqua" is the first Asia album to feature John Payne on lead vocals. Quite honestly, I stopped following the group as closely after John Wetton left. This album still has Geoff Downes, Carl Palmer, and Steve Howe, but it falls short of the previous releases. Yes, the signature keyboards and drums are there, but Payne simply cannot match Wetton's voice and bass. Some of the songs, such as "Love Under Fire" and "Lay Down Your Arms" are ok, but they don't come close to Wetton's songs from earlier albums. "Asrta, "Alpha", and "Asia" are much better than this one.