Ash - 'Ad Astra' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Zarathustra

2. Which One Do You Want?

3. Fun People (Feat. Graham Coxon)

4. Give Me Back My World

5. Hallion

6. Deadly Love

7. My Favourite Ghost

8. Jump in the Line

9. Keep Dreaming

10. Dehumanised

11. Ghosting

12. Ad Astra (Feat. Graham Coxon)

Ash release their newest album, 'Ad Astra', via Fierce Panda Records on the 3^rd of October. Having recently seen them live for the first time supporting the Darkness last year I was intrigued to hear what their new music sounded like plus I decided during that gig that I really needed to see them headline a tour.

Firstly, there are songs on here that I really wasn’t expecting such as 'Fun People', the collaboration with Grahem Coxon which to me sounded very 70’s new wave with a hint of 90’s indie.

There are some classic sounding Ash tracks as well some. such as 'Give Me Back My World', which is as good as anything they’ve done but this album feels to me like an album where some boundaries are being pushed.

Don’t get me wrong, they haven’t gone all disco on us, but there are some interesting little touches, some chances taken that just add to the whole listening experience while at the same time staying grounded in their roots. A new direction for Ash? No, I don’t think so, just the pushing of some boundaries and some challenges to themselves, I think but in a way that adds rather than detracts.

Does it all work? Not totally but almost all of it works and more than enough to make this an album worth listening to. I think that if somewhere like Radio 2, picks it up there are a few songs on here that could definitely get on their playlists and see the upcoming tour sell out, it will probably anyway.

Ash are doing a record store tour, followed by a full tour, over the course of October, November, December and February (clearly they wanted a break in January). Having now seen them live after years of wanting to they are more than worth seeing and I hope to see them again.

What I’m looking forward to on this tour is some of the new music being played live, not a thing people always say of a band who have been going for as long as they have. Usually, the new songs see a mass exodus to the bar or other facilities, I suspect that won’t be the case on this tour.

The aforementioned 'Fun People' should be great fun live, 'Deadly Love' could easily turn into a singalong, 'Which One Do You Want' is lovely, they’ve finally put 'Jump In The Line' on an album, something they’ve been performing live for a while as I understand it (they did when I saw them and the recorded version sounds great, the live version is a lot of fun) and 'Dehumanised' feels like it could make a corpse feel the need to get up and jump about while title track, 'Ad Astra', is going to make people want to dance but there isn’t a weak link here so they should all sound brilliant, get your bar trips in before they come on!

I’m genuinely impressed with this album, I often wonder why some bands write new music when it feels like they are just trying to recapture what they once had, but they never seem to get there. But in this case Ash feel like a band who still have it, still have something to say and who are still on top of their songwriting game.

All in all, a great album well worth a listen, a download, or, as I usually do, a purchase of the vinyl and if you get the chance to pick up a ticket to go see them live you really should, they are well worth it!

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Review - Iain McClay