Review Summary: Ash abandon the winning formula that has served them so well in the past for a more 'mature' approach. This new direction has its moments, but ultimately falls short of their former glories.
Ash's career has been one full of ups and downs. In 1996, they released their full length debut,
1977. It was an excellent first, full of energy, youthful enthusiasm and poppy choruses, which were enough to see it top the UK album chart and produce four top twenty singles. Their next effort,
Nu-Clear Sounds was a solid follow-up, but was a much more challenging listen, as many of the catchy hooks of their debut had been sacrificed for a darker, grungier sound.
Nu-Clear Sounds was ultimately deemed a commercial failure, and signaled the beginning of an uncertain period for the band, where they narrowly avoided break-up and bankruptcy. They were saved though by comeback album
Free All Angels, which like their debut was supported by a string of successful singles, and proved to be the album that put them back onto the music map.
In 2004, Ash released their fourth studio album
Meltdown, a straight-forward hard rock album, which received good reviews from both fans and the press. The period between this and their next album,
Twilight Of The Innocents was, however a time of much change for the band, as it saw the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley. The music industry had also changed significantly, with digital downloads becoming an increasingly important format. This change in how people buy music led to Ash announcing upon its release that
Twilight Of The Innocents would be their last album, and that they would instead only release singles in the future. The band also claimed they had a new approach to how they write their music, ditching the youthful pop punk style, and songs about the likes of Jackie Chan and Star Wars for a more 'mature' and serious approach.
The album begins reasonably well, with both opener
I Started A Fire and lead single
You Can't Have It All having catchy choruses and good guitar work, making them easily recognizable as Ash songs. The same can be said for
Blacklisted which follows, giving the album a solid but unspectacular start. In these early stages, the songs are similar to those from previous album Meltdown, but unfortunately lack the same punch. This comes directly as a result of Charlotte Hatherley’s departure, as her guitar parts beefed up the songs, and her backing vocals supported Tim Wheelers limited abilities, which are unfortunately exposed here. This means that some of the lesser guitar driven songs such as
Ritual that would benefit from an additional member sound rather thin.
As a result of this loss, some of this albums highlights are its softer moments, examples being
End Of The World and
Polaris, possibly the two strongest tracks here. The former has a slow yet catchy tempo all the way through, whilst the latter is a piano driven ballad you would expect more from the likes of Coldplay. Both of these songs are backed up by strings, and were released as singles.
End Of The World is the sixth track on an album which until this point has been quite good. Unfortunately after this song, standards begin to drop badly. Most of the songs that follow never get going, and lack any genuine inspiration. The one exception is
Princess Six, which boasts the catchiest chorus on the album, but one of the reasons why this song shines so brightly is because of the blandness of the material around it.
The final track,
Twilight Of The Innocents is clearly supposed to be an epic closer, and does begin with some promise. Any hope of a positive ending is lost, however as the song drags on, continuously building up to a climax that never seems to come. When it does, it is hugely underwhelming, and when the song finally ends, it feels as if it has lasted far longer than its six minute duration. In a way,
Twilight Of The Innocents is summarized by its title track; a new, softer direction that has some promise, but ultimately fails to match Ash’s previous work. There are some good songs, but as the album goes on, it becomes less and less interesting, and finds the band perhaps trying too hard to sound more mature.
As mentioned earlier,
Twilight Of The Innocents is set to be Ash’s final studio album. If they do go through with their plans to regularly release singles, it is likely we will see more and more ballads, which are the highlights of an otherwise average release.
Reccomended Tracks
Polaris
End Of The World
You Can't Have It All
I Started A Fire
Princess Six
