Asia The Smile Has Left Your Eyes / Lying to Yourself (vinyl single) Review by Gary Hill
One of the cool things about these vintage Asia singles is that the song on the flip side is typically not included on the album. That makes these worth having. Both of these songs here are quite good. This is not the proggiest stuff from Asia, but it still qualifies as prog to a large degree because of the personnel involved (John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer).
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2017 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Side 1
The Smile Has Left Your Eyes The rather sad keyboard based section that starts this makes me think of The Buggles. As it grows out from there it becomes more of a pop oriented Asia tune. It is quite catchy and not all that proggy. Still, it is a single. It's a solid song, either way.
Side 2
Lying to Yourself The proggy keyboard based intro here makes me think of ELO just a bit. As it powers out into harder rocking stuff, Steve Howe shines and it's distinctly Asia. The cut drops back for the verse. It's a pretty standard Asia tune overall. That's not a bad thing by any means. It's just strong AOR music.
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