This album goes wrong on so many levels I'm not sure where to start.

It's released fifteen years after this band's very short window of popularity — 1982 to 1983. Asia was already an anachronism when it first came out, a prog rock supergroup in the middle of the technopop revolution. Now in the post-post-punk era, Asia seems even more of dinosaur.

The packaging and sound quality are only a couple of steps above a bootleg. The album is called Now Live, but it was actually recorded on a 1990 reunion tour, even then already seven years past Asia's sell-by date.

The worst part is you see occasional glimmers of why Asia sold millions of copies of their debut album. "Heat Of The Moment" and "Only Time Will Tell" are good enough songs that they can't be denied — but anyone who really wants those songs at this point in history would undoubtedly be better off buying the original versions on Asia's debut album or the 1990 hits compilation.  (1/98)