ASIA – Silent Nation (2004)

Initially, I started out writing a list of favorite tracks from the John Payne years of ASIA, but I kept coming back to this album, and decided to feature it instead (first). Silent Nation was the last studio album of the John Payne years, released in 2004. It seems a bit of an oddity in the ASIA catalogue up until then with a totally different take on cover art (a photo), and an album title that doesn’t simply start with an ‘A’.

I remember seeing this when it came out in the local music chain shop, and being curious, but not curious enough to pay the ridiculous import price. Over the last year or so, I’ve picked up and revisited these Payne era albums on occasion, and though there are some excellent tracks throughout the catalogue w/ JP, a number of things sounded a bit too laid back at times, and I’ve wound up moving on to something else. But, I finally listened to this a few times in full (Youtube) one day, and thought this was far better than anything that came before it, with songs like the epic “Blue Moon Monday” (love that big Hammond organ sound), “Ghost In The Mirror”, the ballad “Gone Too Far”, the title track, and the 2 which I think would’ve made fine radio hits in “What About Love” and the single “Long Way From Home”. This album gets better with every listen. No duff cuts here, with every song offering something different and of interest. For me, this is not only the oddity in the ASIA catalogue (see above), but also the most overlooked IMO. Excellent album.

Silent Nation featured probably the longest running line-up of the John Payne years, with the players who had been holdovers from the previous album Aura in 2001. That album featured a number of drummers and guitar players, but among them – the legendary Chris Slade (Manfred Mann’s Earthband, Uriah Heep, The Firm, AC/DC…) and guitarist Guthrie Govan. Slade, Govan, Payne, and Downes were the ASIA line-up that I saw in 2002 in Trenton’s Classic Rock Festival (along w/ Uriah Heep, Focus, and others. This show was released on DVD & CD). Silent Nation does include a few other guest players and co-writers, notably Billy Sherwood (now of YES). This album was produced by John Payne, who did an excellent job, (I gotta wonder why Payne was left to this task on his own!?).

Anyway, this one would only come out on CD, and now seems to fetch a high price for the CD /DVD package. A shame this (and many from the John Payne years) never saw a vinyl release and have yet to see proper reissues. Perhaps someone could put together a nice box set of this period of ASIA(!?) Payne is currently touring his version of ASIA; I gotta wonder if anything from this album features in his show.