Asia: John Wetton or John Payne era?

Trollheart · 07-01-2017, 10:20 AM

I'm only offering options to vote for one or the other, or that you have no preference: if you don't care about Asia then don't vote and nobody's forcing you to contribute. I know a lot of people hate this band and that's fine, but for those who credit them, which lineup do you prefer? To remind anyone who doesn't know, and wants to, here's how it stacks up:

John Wetton

1982-1990 then 2008-2014
Asia, Alpha, Astra, Then and Now
Phoenix, Omega, XXX, Gravitas

John Payne

1992-2004
Aqua, Aria, Arena, Aura, Silent Nation

I personally love Wetton's voice (love both of them) but I feel Asia really released their best work under Payne's leadership. Aqua, Aria, Arena and Aura are among my favourite Asia albums, and while I do rate the debut highly and like Alpha, I recognise that the latter is mostly a collection of banal love songs, whereas with later albums they got into deeper, more interesting topics. Their music also got tighter, I feel, with the addition of Al Pitrelli and later Elliot Randall on guitar, and Payne definitely added a new dimension to their songwriting, which had, up to the release of Astra, I feel, become quite stale.

View Poll Results: John Wetton or John Payne?
John Wetton	1	50.00%
John Payne	1	50.00%
I have no preference; I like both eras	0	0%
Voters: 2. You may not vote on this poll

07-01-2017, 10:20 AM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Asia: John Wetton or John Payne era? I'm only offering options to vote for one or the other, or that you have no preference: if you don't care about Asia then don't vote and nobody's forcing you to contribute. I know a lot of people hate this band and that's fine, but for those who credit them, which lineup do you prefer? To remind anyone who doesn't know, and wants to, here's how it stacks up: John Wetton 1982-1990 then 2008-2014 Asia, Alpha, Astra, Then and Now Phoenix, Omega, XXX, Gravitas John Payne 1992-2004 Aqua, Aria, Arena, Aura, Silent Nation I personally love Wetton's voice (love both of them) but I feel Asia really released their best work under Payne's leadership. Aqua, Aria, Arena and Aura are among my favourite Asia albums, and while I do rate the debut highly and like Alpha, I recognise that the latter is mostly a collection of banal love songs, whereas with later albums they got into deeper, more interesting topics. Their music also got tighter, I feel, with the addition of Al Pitrelli and later Elliot Randall on guitar, and Payne definitely added a new dimension to their songwriting, which had, up to the release of Astra, I feel, become quite stale. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018