It's Good to Hear Original '80s Lineups of Asia & the Hooters Again, Even Without Major Revelations

I had a professor in graduate school who loved to extol the artistic virtues of Irish poet William Butler Yeats but also lamented and insisted that no matter how hard he tried to remain prolific and profound, the revered writer suffered from an essentially inevitable decline in artistic quality as he aged. At the time I wondered if such a concept actually held up as a rule of thumb for artists of all stripes, a notion suggested firmly by my teacher. As I've grown older, however, I've certainly become more aware of the importance of time windows when it comes to music, film and literature as well as my own modest attempts at artistic achievement.

The bottom line, I'm afraid, is that it's a rare artist indeed (one whose degree of difficulty rises even as his or her odds grow increasingly faint) that can produce art at 70 on par with accomplishments from a peak period half a life earlier. Maybe Paul Newman comes to mind, or possibly John Fogerty, who both keep chugging along and producing vital work in their respective fields.

Anyway, so if recent brand new albums of fresh material from the original lineups of successful '80s bands Asia and the Hooters don't exactly set the world on fire, it's certainly nothing for them to be ashamed of. Don't get me wrong: Asia's Phoenix and the Hooters' Time Stand Still are far from embarrassing or even disappointing. There just seems to be a little something missing from the albums' anthemic lead-off tracks, "Never Again" and "I'm Alive," for example, that prevents these reformed bands from challenging the heights of their best '80s work. Judging from the album and song titles, it's clear that the will is there for both groups, but I guess the ravages of time continue their assault no matter how we may stand defiantly against them. I applaud the efforts in both cases and certainly don't intend to be ageist, but the rare feat of getting the original band into the studio for a new record doesn't necessarily equal a return to past glory. But please check out these new releases for yourself; at the very least we don't have artists here trying to trade exclusively on their names with little regard for purity in personnel. The attempt to rekindle past musical magic moments amounts to a winning-lottery-ticket-in-a-10-acre-haystack prospect, but these '80s veterans do make a worthy effort.

• Compare prices on Phoenix here.
• Compare prices on Time Stand Still here.