Customer Reviews

Free All Angles - Germany

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the frankly underrated Nu-Clear Sounds, which dispenssed with their power pop much of the way through in favour of heavy guitars and mellow balladry, as have returned to their roots. Lyrically there is a strong degree of maturity, but its the tunes that really win it.

Walking Barefoot- 10/10 Why this wasn't a single I have no idea, as its the msot brilliant slice of guitar power pop since Brian Wilson went insane. Harking back to long lost sumemrs in love, this is what as do best.

Shining Light - 8/10 The lead single, a very mellow love song with interesting lyrics featuring a lot of religious imagery for some reason, and a pleasant but unspectacular tune

Burn Baby Burn 10/10 Perhaps the best single of last year, a pounding slice of energetic rock which is miles away from Numbskull, Death Trip and other Nu-Clear Sounds rockers

Candy 9/10 A gamble and a surefire success at once, putting Tim's lovelorn lyrical sensitivity into a new grandiose setting. Uses a sample of Make It Easy On Yourself, and amazingly is the better track

Cherry Bomb - 8/10 Another impressive blast of power pop, as ever about a girl, with more vigour and exhuberance

Submission - 8/10 With grinding programming and vocals in and out in the mix this comes across like a lot of the Nu-Clear Sounds tracks, and shows some aggression and hedonism in amongst the sunshine

Someday - 7/10 Drenched with strings, this is another setting for the melodies, but its not the album's most effective moment.

Pacific Palisades - 10/10 Two minutes of perfection, bursting straight into the vocals and then adding another layer of sound later a la some of their classics like Wild Surf and Walking Barefoot. More blissful power pop

Shark - 7/10 Heavier track which isn't quite as effective, on that front Nu-Clear is better

Sometimes - 10/10 A perfectly executed gem, just the right mix of sentiment, passion and drive, with the guitar in the chorus especially well delivered

Nicole - 9/10 Bouncing along as if the world were about to end, this is a gem cut from the same cloth as so many others.

There's A Star - 5/10 Too syrupy for my taste, and a poor choice of single in a way, but it was a hit. Still, so was Evergreen (puke)

World Domination - 9/10 What a way to close out the album, the kind of 2 minute perfection that leaves you gagging for more. ROll on album 5!
Overall 10/10

One criticism though, but it lies not with the album, but the selections of singles. The use of the lacklustre There's A Star was a poor one - it leaves the selections too biased towards that side of their stuff, especially considering that almost everything except Submission & Shark could make hits. Tracks like Cherry Bomb or Nicole would be more obvious, but for the UK World Domination or Pacific Palisades would have also made perfect singles, as an antidote to Candy, and when stuff like The Hives and The White Stripes are charting as well as to Candy and Sometimes despite being total unknowns releasing heavy chaotic 2 minute blasts

Ash return after the questionable "Nu-Clear Sounds" to give us their greatest album yet. From the first chords of "Walking Barefoot" to the moment "World Domination" fades away you will be transfixed by it's sheer power. Ash have moved away from their soft rock roots, and are now very definitely pop-rock, but there is also a new maturity to the band. There is a mix of tracks; the power ballads like "Walking Barefoot" and "Burn Baby Burn" to the calmer, reflective tracks "Someday" and "There's a Star". The album continues to give us what we have come to expect from Ash - a great selection of varied tracks that will appeal to fans and newcomers alike. It's difficult to pick stand-out tracks from an album where literaly EVERY track is brilliant, but "Walking Barefoot" and "Cherry Bomb" are my personaly favourites. I bought this album on its release date and it didn't leave my cd player for 2 months.