Live Around The World (3 Panel Digipak) [Collector's Edition]

I am a unapolagetic Asia fan. I love their live shows and have seen a few in person myself. I also love collecting bootleg shows.
whether through tape trading or official bootlegs like what asia provide. I understand that the sound quality may be less but if
there is nothing better who am I to complain, besides it never reaches the supposed unlistenable quality that many complain of.
I own the Quadra box(which people love to complain about) and love it. sounds great to me.

however this set is a absolute mess not just cuase of its sound issues which I will mention later.

I decided to pick up this set cause I found it used in a store. I knew it had all tracks that are available seperately
but the releases from the 2008 tour aren't too easy to find and fairly expensive. I had wanted to hear the original album
played in order from SF and that is included on this set so I figured what the heck.

Then I played it...

First of all track selection is miserable. why do we have two of so many tracks with other tracks left off entirely.
why not give us the classic selections that were played like court of the crimson king or roundabout.
at least the 1990s tracks give us a good slection of songs that the current band isnt playing (stuff from Astra and then and now).
but, Days like These is edited to only 2:22 for unknown reasons.
but given the availability of those albums(live in nottingham and live in Moscow which can be found used easily) that space still would have been far better used with more tracks from the current lineup like Daylight or Fanfare For the Common Man.

one odd anomaly that really detracts from the set is that there are introductions to songs that are not present. after hte first Wildest Dreams there is a long introduction
about playing past members songs and a introduction of steve howe with Roundabout then the disc cuts to One Step Closer
immediately after the word Roundabout.

This happens again after the Smile has Left Your Eyes with a intro for Don't Cry leading to Only Time Will Tell.

This clearly shows the lack of thought or care that went into this with the record company simply lifting individual
tracks without thinking to edit out the intros that were tacked onto them that would make sense in hte original albums.

The second disc is a little better because the bulk of it comes from one show so it plays together well, but after the nightmare of the first disc it is poor medicine.

Now I have said I don't mind bootleg sound assuming that that is the best that is available
but this release really dropped the ball there is a issue on it with phasing sound.
the volume level will rise and fall very noticeably and awkwardly
this was not present on the two original relases I have that are sampled here so it seems
some issue related specifically to this cd set.
this is a case where the sound quality is noticeably worse and there is better available so to me this is unforgiveable.

one last nit the booklet is totally uninformative and just has the standard press release type info.

Avoid this release at all costs. a far better way to get what is offered here is to buy live in Moscow and the live in SF show with the original album in sequence.

I've never heard an album with worse sound quality. When I first popped it in, I thought there was a problem with my CD player at first. It was that bad. I feel bad for the band because it makes them sound like cover band at the county fair. Wow. Honestly, it's horrible. There isn't a single reason to buy this release.

Very disappointed with this CD. Sound quality is very poor. Sounds like it was recorded with a tape recorder. The sound fades in and out throughout the disks. I'm surprised Asia would allow such a poor recording to be released.