Ash return with new single and album

By Scott Munro
published

Ash will release their new studio album Islands in May - listen to the single Buzzkill

Ash
Ash (Image credit: Alex John Beck)

Ash have announced that they’ll release a new studio album later this year.

It’ll be titled Islands and will arrive on May 18 via Infectious Music – and to mark the news, the Northern Irish outfit have launched the first single from the follow-up to 2015’s Kablammo! in the shape of Buzzkill.

It features guest vocals from The Undertones’ Damien O’Neill and Mickey Bradley.

Vocalist and guitarist Tim Wheeler explains: “The day I wrote Buzzkill, it took me a while to stop laughing because it’s so fun, dumb and full of unnecessary swearing.

“We used to know a band called Buzzkill in Belfast in the 90s and I think their name has been in my mind for all that time wanting to get into a song.

“Having seen The Undertones playing a couple of times recently, I was guiltily thinking how much the backing vocals I’d written for Buzzkill were mimicking their style.

“So I thought it would only be right to ask Damien and Mickey to sing on it and we were honoured when that they said yes, despite all the filthy cussing. It’s a fun song and will hopefully ignite a few mosh-pits for us this year.”

Ash have also been confirmed for Live At Leeds on May 5 and at the BBC Biggest Weekend Festival, Belfast, on May 26.

Find the Buzzkill stream below, along with the Islands cover art and tracklist.

Ash Islands tracklist

  1. True Story
  2. Annabel
  3. Buzzkill
  4. Confessions In The Pool
  5. All That I Have Left
  6. Don’t Need Your Love
  7. Somersault
  8. Did Your Love Burn Out?
  9. Silver Suit
  10. It’s A Trap
  11. Is It True?
  12. Incoming Waves

Ash: A-Z Vol 2

Scott Munro
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.