Imagine the demos for a bad
Asia
album, and you'll have a fair notion of what to expect here. Along with the usual suspects (empty love song lyrics, overly slick production), there's an extraordinary lack of personality on
John Wetton
and
Phil Manzanera
's
Wetton/Manzanera
:
"It's Just Love"
or
"Suzanne"
could have been written by pretty much anybody. And while the superb
Alan White
is listed as the drummer, he's compressed and noise-gated to the point where it may as well be a drum machine. A mediocre effort, especially given what this impressive lineup could and should have produced. ~ Paul Collins