John Wetton

“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.

“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.

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.

The songwriting core of '80s supergroup Asia was vocalist/bassist John Wetton and keyboardist Geoffrey Downes. Guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Carl Palmer contributed to the awesome whole, but virtually every song on 1982's number-one behemoth Asia and 1983's Alpha were officially credited to Wetton and Downes. After the original lineup splintered following those two albums, Downes continued to lead various incarnations of the group with occasional, gradually dwindling involvement from the others. Wetton and Downes resumed writing together from time to time, and finally pooled their talents to record 2005's Icon, which is what they also named this duo project itself.

The songwriting core of '80s supergroup Asia was vocalist/bassist John Wetton and keyboardist Geoffrey Downes. Guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Carl Palmer contributed to the awesome whole, but virtually every song on 1982's number-one behemoth Asia and 1983's Alpha were officially credited to Wetton and Downes. After the original lineup splintered following those two albums, Downes continued to lead various incarnations of the group with occasional, gradually dwindling involvement from the others. Wetton and Downes resumed writing together from time to time, and finally pooled their talents to record 2005's Icon, which is what they also named this duo project itself.

Although John Wetton is at the helm throughout all of these tracks, King's Road, 1972-1980 is really a collaboration of progressive rock artists that have joined Wetton across each of the 13 songs. Wetton's renditions of songs by his former bands King Crimson and UK come off quite clean and refined, especially "As Long As You Want Me Here" from 1979's Night After Night Live album and the opening "Nothing to Lose" off Danger Money. While his efforts at singing the King Crimson tracks lack the magic and fullness they exhibit in their original form, they still maintain a slight electrified feel. The entire 12 minutes of "Starless" from the classic Red album makes for an excellent finishing track, brought marvelously back to life with the steady drumming of Bill Bruford and the sparkling keyboard work of Robert Fripp…

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").

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…