JOHN WETTON
An Extraordinary Life SPIRIT OF UNICORN MUSIC
Comprehensive eight-disc overview of late prog icon’s solo career.
What sounds particularly fresh among the many delights in this collection of John Wetton’s six solo albums, plus two discs of unreleased material, is 1980’s Caught In The Crossfire. His solo debut, it lays the groundwork for the sound he’d begin co-creating with Asia a year later, but the energy of the then-current new wave era also seems evident in the likes of Turn On The Radio, creating an ebullient power pop/prog hybrid. Another standout is the similarly energetic but more obviously proggy When Will You Realize? from the same album, which gyrates unpredictably while Tull man Martin Barre reels off expressive lead lines.