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That Ash open this space-themed ninth album with a lark-about synth-rock take on Also Sprach Zarathustra is more fitting than they probably know. Just when Northern Ireland’s premier punk-pop trio should be withering their way through their third decade together, by some sci-fi space-odyssey magic they sound reborn on each new album.
Since 2018’s Islands at least, they’ve been on a tear of futuristic rock brilliance and Brit-Weezer ballast. You’d call it a revitalisation if they’d ever actually lost any of the youthful vigour of 1977. When an excitable young woman introduces the hook-laden Hallion by hyping Ash like they’re the next big thing, they don’t disappoint.
Prone to perking up the personal, with Ad Astra Ash take a far broader life-view. The title track is a literal planetary escape: ‘Take me up to the stars, we will learn who we are, see the Earth from above,’ Tim Wheeler sings to warp-speed alt.rock, and from this wider angle they take in a troubling modern world.
Dehumanise, their very own My Name Is Jonas with its tinkling verses and hammering chorus, decries the othering effect of war, religion and social media. Fun People interrupts its upbeat, globe-trotting electro-glam for a cheerleader chant about the short attention spans, paranoias and main character syndromes of the new, very online generation.
Some of the album’s best moments come when Wheeler turns the lens on himself – pining for a long-gone lover on gorgeous chamber ballad My Favourite Ghost, or acting the romantic phantom himself on Ghosting. But there is social commentary at work, albeit nothing that would have bothered the sound-desk censors of the Victorious festival.
There’s also a widening of their sonic scope, taking in broader influences from The Smiths (Which One Do You Want could be a New York-set Bigmouth Strikes Again), The Specials (Jump In The Line is a skapunk conga tune right down to Wheeler’s cry of ‘Okay, I believe you!’) and Blur – here’s Blur’s Graham Coxon himself adding a lascivious drawl to Fun People, echoing the melodies of the title track and, without actually playing on the track, lending the spirit of his Coffee + TV to Ghosting.
And so with Ad Astra Ash are reborn again: older, wiser, but sounding not a wrinkle of it.
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