Headscratchers / Asia

• Since there were originally plans to shoot a music video for every song on Astra, and they were meant to form a continuous narrative, does that mean Astra is a concept album?

• I have a hard time keeping track of what year some of the songs on the Archiva albums were actually recorded in. Several songs are said to be from the late 80s ("I Can't Wait a Lifetime", "Love Like the Video", etc.), but they have John Payne on vocals. Payne didn't join Asia until 1991, so how could anything on these albums come from before that?
  • Without having looked into it myself (yet):
    1. ) Maybe some of the dates are wrong?
    2. ) Maybe the song versions you're hearing are remastered/rerecorded, but with the original dates?
    3. ) 1991 is just the official date, with Payne being "available" before then?

• Is Armada 2 an Asia album or a Geoff Downes solo album? It's credited as Asia, but Geoff is the only performer on the whole thing, and in 2006, it was re-issued as The Bridge under Geoff's name with a studio version of the titular song included. It's the first time I've ever seen the same exact performance be released under 2 different names before.

• For all the magnificent artwork that Roger Dean and Rodney Matthews gave Asia's art direction, why are the covers to Phoenix and Omega so plain in comparison?

• What made them label "Emily" as a bonus track?. That would imply regular editions of Omega don't have the song, but outside of Japan, there isn't a single version of the album that excludes it.
  • Maybe they were working on it, and were unsure whether to include it until the album was actually released? I agree, "bonus" implies 'copies existing without', but to me it can also imply "We really thought you should hear this song, but it's okay if you skip it; the rest of the album isn't to be missed regardless."

---