Asia
was always a bland, derivative excuse for a dinosaur
rock
band, but when their debut album came out in 1982 and sold three million copies, they seemed like a repudiation of the
new wave
movement, the
pop
music equivalent of the
Reagan
revolution in politics. Like
Ronnie
, however,
ran out of gas around mid-decade. True, they were still constructing keyboard-dominated, heroic-voiced arena
, but suddenly nobody cared anymore, or at least not enough customers to vault them into the Top Ten, and for this kind of band, it's platinum or don't bother. So, first, guitarist
Steve Howe
took his marbles and went home to
Yes
, and then the rest of the band packed it in, too. They'd be back, of course, when the money was right. ~ William Ruhlmann