IN BRIEF: : * 1/2 Asia, “Then & Now,” Geffen.: <i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five stars (a classic). </i>

In the early ‘80s, this band of Brits with progressive-rock pedigrees went slumming for pop hits and achieved million-selling success. Apparently, baby needs a new Bentley, because Asia is back (minus original guitarist Steve Howe) with its pompous method unchanged. The album is a hybrid of previously released hits and four new tracks that display the same old devotion to melodramatic lyrics and inflated song arrangements larded with layer after layer of synths and backing voices. This musically incontinent band is just as lacking in studio self-control now as it was then.