Album of the Day

Chasing the Dragon, by John Wetton (1994): How does someone with so much talent and history (King Crimson, UK, Roxy Music, etc.) produce such a lackluster collection of tunes? This live album (recorded in Japan, naturally) covers lots of Wetton's career, from the proggy heydays with Crimson to arena-rock success with Asia to his solo work. But it's all so lifeless. The older proggy tunes have been neutered - UK's "Thirty Years" gets cut off halfway through for Asia's "Only Time Will Tell," while Crimson's "Starless" ends before the instrumental workout that is the piece's signature. That I could live with if it sounded like Wetton and band actually seemed excited about playing this stuff, but they don't (even the Asia and solo stuff has some merit, after all). Only two years later, Wetton was much more interesting as part of Steve Hackett's Tokyo Tapes project, so maybe this album just caught him on a bad night.