XXX is widely regarded as the finest album the reunited Asia made — and, by many accounts, their best since the 1980s. Released in 2012 to mark the band’s thirtieth anniversary, it found the original four members writing and playing with a confidence and warmth that had eluded some of their earlier reunion work. Unashamedly true to the classic Asia sound, it was a fitting celebration of three decades.

The short version

XXX (2012) is the twelfth studio album by Asia, and the third and strongest of the reunion era, made by the original line-up of John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes and Carl Palmer. Its title — the Roman numeral for thirty — marks the anniversary of the 1982 debut. Produced by Mike Paxman and crowned by a Roger Dean cover updating his original dragon, it doubles down on the band’s trademark blend of melody, musicianship and progressive flourishes.

The thirtieth anniversary

By 2012, Asia’s original quartet had been back together for six years, and this was their most productive period ever — three studio albums in five years, after only two in their initial 1980s run. XXX arrived as the centrepiece of a lavish anniversary campaign that also included a remastered edition of the debut, a box set, concert films and a world tour. For the cover, Roger Dean revisited the flying dragon and pearl he had painted in 1982, updating them for 2012, the Year of the Water Dragon — a neat visual link between the band’s beginning and its thirtieth year.

The sound

What makes XXX work is that Asia stopped trying to modernise and simply sounded like themselves. Wetton’s voice is strong and smooth, Howe’s guitar polished and soaring, Palmer’s drumming tasteful and restrained, and Downes’s keyboards shimmer throughout. The Wetton-Downes songwriting partnership — which Wetton described as clicking instantly, ‘a marriage made in heaven’ — is on fine form, and Howe takes a slightly larger hand than usual, co-writing a couple of the harder tracks. It’s retro, unmistakably, but authentically so: mature, melodic rock made by masters entirely at ease with who they are.

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The songs

The album opens with the bright, hopeful ‘Tomorrow the World,’ a fan favourite, and its most celebrated track is the dreamy, atmospheric ‘Bury Me in Willow’ — often singled out as the finest song this later Asia recorded. The single ‘Face on the Bridge’ showcases the band’s beautifully layered sound, while heavier numbers like ‘No Religion’ and ‘Judas’ (both co-written by Howe) give the record real bite, and ‘Faithful’ and ‘Ghost of a Chance’ round it out. Across the album, the four players lock together with the ease of musicians who have nothing left to prove.

Reception and legacy

XXX earned Asia’s warmest reviews in decades, with many critics and fans hailing it as their best album since the classic era — AllMusic gave it four-and-a-half stars. Commercially it did well too, entering the UK chart at number 69, the band’s highest placing since Astra in 1985, and charting in Germany and Japan. It would prove to be the last album by the original line-up: Steve Howe left in early 2013 to concentrate on Yes, and the band continued without him. As a thirtieth-anniversary statement, it could hardly have been better judged.

The verdict

If you only hear one album from the reunited Asia, make it XXX — it’s the record where the original four rediscovered their old magic and sounded genuinely glad to be making music together. Melodic, warm and beautifully played, it stands with the strongest work of the band’s later career. Start with ‘Tomorrow the World,’ ‘Bury Me in Willow’ and ‘Face on the Bridge.’ John Wetton, whose voice and songwriting defined Asia from the start, died in 2017; XXX is the last and finest album by the original line-up he led, and a high note to remember them by.

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