This is the first new Asia studio album since 2014’s Gravitas and, if you’ve not been following the band’s various travails down the years… members coming and going, different versions of the band existing at the same time… don’t expect this to be the classic line-up. This Asia line-up is the new face of the band, with only Geoff Downes, keys, left from the original band which achieved stratospheric success in the 1980s.
Work on the album began in 2015 with Downes and John Wetton putting ideas down but, very sadly, Wetton became very ill and died early in 2017, the work was shelved and the band went on hiatus, with Carl Palmer and Steve Howe walking away. But the ‘John Wetton tribute concert’ in 2023, with Downes, Harry Whitley on bass/vocals, plus Virgil Donati on drums and prog guitarist John Mitchell, was extremely successful and the band continued.
Indigo sees Asia stepping up to the mark again and producing a series of well-crafted and put together accessible rock based songs, with the occasional prog flourish as a reminder of the pedigree of the original band. The first thing you notice, from the opening notes of the intro track, ‘Time Traveller (Into The Light)’, is that the formula which brought them their success in the eighties is still in place… the good harmonies, the catchy melodies and the quality of the playing, particularly from John Mitchell, whose guitar work has given Asia the rocket boost they really needed. Original member Steve Howe is a masterful, almost cerebral, guitarist but Mitchell’s rock credentials have given the band a much harder, rockier edge.
This is very noticeable on the three part piece ‘Tattoo Indigo’, Pts 1 to 3 which, taken together, probably constitute some of Asia’s finest playing. Pt 1 shows what they can do when they really let go, which includes getting in touch with their inner prog, and there’s very good guitar work from Mitchell all the way through. Pts 2 and 3 are also amongst the last pieces John Wetton wrote before he took his leave of us. Bonus track Pt 3 features powerhouse prog drummer Mike Portnoy who, along with Mitchell’s fine guitar playing, takes the track up to another level.
For the rest of the album, for want of a better way of putting it, it’s classic Asia, with power ballads like ‘Change Of Heart’, the occasional lapse into MOR with ‘On A Winter’s Night’, and tracks like ‘Night And Day’, ‘Echo Of You’ and ‘Life In The Sun’, any of which could easily have been slotted into any of Asia’s earlier works, and original member Steve Howe adds some acoustic guitar to ‘Chesapeake Bay’. All the music is extremely well played and put across, retaining the accessibility which made the band’s name back in the day.
Indigo proves Asia haven’t moved too far away from the style which helped make their name in the eighties… it ain’t broke so they’ve not had to fix anything… they’ve simply played to their strengths, and it shows.
