Rock music right now seems to be concentrated into two factions. On one side, you have the shouty angry Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, At The Drive In types and on the other there's Mogwai, Radiohead and a million other slow-fi bands drooling onto their fretboards. What's common to both camps is that neither are happy. Or at least pretend not to be in the name of cool. It seems a crime these days for rock bands to make music that makes you smile. Unless your name is Ash, that is.
Listening to new album "Free All Angels," it's like Britpop never died. This is music made for skating, surfing, boozing, snogging, anything and everything a big kid should be doing come summer. The album kicks in with "Walking Barefoot," a sprint along the beach with the surf stinging your eyes. This is followed by "Shining Light," an anthemic paeon to your summer lover as you indulge in a bit of light petting, and "Burn Baby Burn," a bouncy feel-good pop waltz with clashing guitars. And damn, we're just 10 minutes in. Already we've got three surefire hit singles that only a miserable sun-hating, pasty-faced Goth would claim to detest.
The album does not keep up this pace. Few could. But so what. There's other goodies in here. "Candy" might be a soppy slice of Scott Walker-esque orchestration, but it's not masturbatory, and hence is ace for making out to. And although "Submission's" big bouncy breakbeats might have been nicked from the Chemical Brothers' dustbin, at least Ash knows enough these days to mix things up a little to keep listeners' interest intact.