John Wetton Battle Lines

Voice Mail is the second solo album by the English rock musician John Wetton. Initially released on 17 June 1994 in Japan only, it was re-released internationally as Battle Lines with the same musical content but different artwork. John Wetton was an English singer, bassist, and songwriter. He rose to fame with bands Mogul Thrash, Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music and Uriah Heep. Following his period in Uriah Heep, Wetton formed U.K., and later — after a brief stint in Wishbone Ash — he was the frontman and principal songwriter of the supergroup Asia, which proved to be his biggest commercial success.

A reissue of an album originally released in Japan in 1994 under the title Voice Mail, 1995's Battle Lines continues John Wetton's career path over the preceding 15 years – there's more pop than prog in his prog pop, in other words. Basically indistinguishable from a late-period Asia album, the ten tracks on Battle Lines were mostly co-written by Wetton and keyboardist Bob Marlette. The re-release garnered a new cover and bonus track - acoustic version of the title track.

“Those songs and recordings will live forever and continue to bring joy to those who listen to them. John has left us all a gift, and it is a very precious one.” Geoff Downes, speaking about John Wetton in 2024. ‘Concentus: The John Wetton Live Collection, Volume I’ is the first in an on-going series of three box sets celebrating the life and times of this incredible musician, focusing on the concert arena.

John Wetton is easily one of the greatest singers of the rock era and he shines on this soundtrack CD with two compelling versions of "Battle Lines." His orchestrations of the music for the film are also top shelf…

Anthology is the first John Wetton compilation to draw exclusively from his solo albums. Why hadn't anybody thought of doing this before? Well, common sense for one thing. Not that Wetton's solo albums are bad, but they tend to be maudlin; jam 18 of these babies together on a single disc and you can suck the air out of a pretty big room. Even Wetton himself doesn't lean so heavily on his own handiwork, interspersing his live shows with material from Asia, King Crimson, and UK. For the irredeemable optimist, Anthology poses less of a problem; the sound quality is very good and there are some strategically placed reprieves from sadness along the way ("Jane," "Round in Circles," "I'll Be There").

Voice Mail continues John Wetton's career path over the preceding 15 years - there's more pop than prog in his prog pop, in other words. Basically indistinguishable from a late-period Asia album, the ten tracks on Voice Mail were mostly co-written by Wetton and keyboardist Bob Marlette; the combination of their less-than-memorable melodies and undistinguished lyrics with Ron Nevison's smooth-as-glass production makes Voice Mail an almost entirely forgettable album with little to recommend it for anyone but the most devoted members of Wetton's cult following. Only the opening "Right Where I Wanted to Be" and the spirited "Space and Time" feature particularly strong choruses, but both sound more like Chris de Burgh or Toto than the formerly much more interesting John Wetton.

Fans of Asia can celebrate with the release of this live album from bassist John Wetton, who recorded it during a tour of Japan. During the course of the seventeen tracks here, he covers a number of Asia tracks (starting with an acoustic version of "Heat of the Moment") along with material from his King Crimson and UK days. On the whole, it's okay, recorded fairly well and played professionally; the vocals are often mixed too far back, and some of the effects on the instruments (particularly acoustic guitars) are a little drastic even for this kind of music, but these are relatively minor things. It isn't a particularly compelling album, however – Wetton goes through the paces, and nobody flubs their part, but nothing stays once the album is done: even the King Crimson material didn't generate much interest (in fact, "Easy Money" is performed in such a way that it's close to annoying).