Saturday, April 11, 2009

835. Ash - 1977 (1996)


















Track Listing

1. Lose Control
2. Goldfinger
3. Girl From Mars
4. I'd Give You Anything
5. Gone The Dream
6. Kung Fu
7. Oh Yeah
8. Let It Flow
9. Innocent Smile
10. Angel Interceptor
11. Lost In You
12. Darkside Lightside

Review

I have very mixed feelings about this album. It starts out great, with a Tie-Fighter sample, geek that I am, to the point of knowing that Tie means Twin Ion Engine, it pulled my heart-strings right there. After this it kicks in to some pretty great guitars, with a fat sound that I really like.

The downside came after this, I just really don't like the singer's voice. It sounds too bratty here, something that brings to mind teen-rock bands which annoy the crap out of me.

Therefore I like the music but dislike the voice, making this an album which in the end I will not want to listen to again that much. The slower the track the more noticeable the voice is, so I quite liked the heavier stuff. But meh.

Track Highlights

1. Lose Control
2. Let It Flow
3. Goldfinger
4. Darkside Lightside

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The name is a reference to year of three events which shaped the band - the births of two members of the band, the year Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released, and the year the first punk albums were released, though it has been suspected that the Star Wars reference is the most important; the album opens with the sound of a TIE Fighter, and ends with the track "Darkside Lightside", whose title is a Star Wars reference, and which also ends with a choral version of the Star Wars main theme. The band have also covered "Cantina Band", on the "Girl From Mars" b-side.

Lose Control:


5 comments:

Rod McBan said...

The only song I know from this is "Girl from Mars", which I suppose was a pretty big hit and which I liked well enough. Is the rest of the album much in the same vein?

Ash reformed recently, or broke-up, or something. The main thing that struck me about it was that someone cared enough about Ash for the radio station I listen to to make a deal of it. It's like when you find-out that a one-hit wonder from the 70s has had a long and prosperous career touring the stadiums of the Balkans.

Lachlan Willis said...

H0LY CRAP that Lose Control song was on Gran Turismo soundtrack if i remember correctly! Totally getting this album now.

Anonymous said...

what the fuck is up with the hidden track?

that was gross

Francisco Silva said...

Tom: Yeah, they were popular in the UK before my time.

Lachlan: Yes it was!

Anon: Yeah forgot to mention that, as you can imagine I only listened to that once, skipped it every other time.

Anonymous said...

I just realized we are into 1996...

So I rolled back to see what your Weezer's Blue Album was and i was surprised to see it is not in the list...

Funny, it deserved...