Released: 1996
Northern Ireland's Ash built their name on a series of punky, exuberant, youthful - and sometimes verging on the novel(ty) - hit singles, and so by the time they released this, their first album proper, it was a pleasant surprise that they embraced a slightly more mature and expansive sound, especially given that two-thirds of the band were only 19 at the time of the album's release.
The album kicks off with 'Lose Control', the best song on the album, opening with the sound of a TIE fighter (from Star Wars), and a definite example of their maturing sound, followed by the excellent singles 'Goldfinger' and 'Girl From Mars'. The first half of the album continues solidly until track six, another really good hit single, 'Kung Fu'.
The second half of the album starts well with 'Oh Yeah', another good single, but then takes a distinct downturn in quality. The best song of the last five is the rather weak single 'Angel Interceptor'; the other four songs here are rather mediocre and mean the album goes out on something of a downer.
That said, this is a pretty good album, and is by some distance the best the band would make; their follow up albums are rather tepid, though each one contains a few hit singles meaning that their later singles collection ("Intergalactic Sonic 7"s") is very good. It's well worth a listen though and is certainly one of the better and more interesting albums of the Britpop era.
Rating: 3.5/5
The album kicks off with 'Lose Control', the best song on the album, opening with the sound of a TIE fighter (from Star Wars), and a definite example of their maturing sound, followed by the excellent singles 'Goldfinger' and 'Girl From Mars'. The first half of the album continues solidly until track six, another really good hit single, 'Kung Fu'.
The second half of the album starts well with 'Oh Yeah', another good single, but then takes a distinct downturn in quality. The best song of the last five is the rather weak single 'Angel Interceptor'; the other four songs here are rather mediocre and mean the album goes out on something of a downer.
That said, this is a pretty good album, and is by some distance the best the band would make; their follow up albums are rather tepid, though each one contains a few hit singles meaning that their later singles collection ("Intergalactic Sonic 7"s") is very good. It's well worth a listen though and is certainly one of the better and more interesting albums of the Britpop era.
Rating: 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment