Ash - 1977: C/D

Just they get to having pretentions to being Black Sabbath/Iron Maiden. When they are pop-metal they are brilliant/untouchable. When they try to be iggylike, there's too many bands do it better.

I preferred the fact they were drunkenly quoting "Pollo Asado" by Ween.

(a and b side of their first single proper...)

Remember when this first came out, it was sold at a '1977' price?!

Nu-Clear Sounds is kind of alright but not a patch on it really and Free All Angels is great and probably way more consistent from start to finish but on the whole somehow not quite as thrilling and cohesive, although still very fine and with rushes of syn-guitar magic. But 1977 is magnificent and essential above and beyond anything they have done will surely ever do again.

"Angel Interceptor" is my favourite, I'm a sucker for that sailing "oooh-oooh" hook, cliched as it may be.

i heard that great all-american rejects' song "swing swing" in the pub tonight, and i thought that maybe they're the heirs to ash-circa-1977's throne. 'free all angels' has some excellent songwriting, but isn't this teenage-kicks punk-pop better when actually done by teenagers (or at leat by people not that far from teenager-hood)?

Ahem. Goldfinder was ace too. Nu-Clear sounds was rubbish, but Wild Surf was quite good (but too dense and noisy), and Free All Angels was too far in the other direction - clever and classy but not even remotely thrilling except for two or three songs.

"1997" just seems like bunch of kids (Wheeler and Hamilton were 18 or 19 when it came out) fucking about and coming up with something rather exceptional without really trying and having a great laugh while doing it. This album shits all over most of the Britpop from the time.

And, yes, I was talking about "Shining Light". One of the best choruses ever.

good hooky pop sensibilities on 'goldfinger' and the like

What was Passantino thinking about saying?

oh yeah. i noticed his comment upthread and sort of wondered vaguely

It sounds fantastic except for Tim Wheeler's rubbish voice, which is always rubbish.

As boring power pop bands with okayish songcrafting skills go I could just about take Ash, if it weren't for the afforementioned rubbish voice which just drains the spark out of everything they do.

Oh these guys are tons of fun.

Lost In You cropped up on my iPod while shuffling a few weeks ago and sounded fantastic. I love that song.

ultimate in "lol nineties" record sleeves vv

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Angel_Inteceptor.jpg

dug this out for a road trip after having not listened to it for 15 years. Most of it was mediocre, but "Angel Interceptor" sounded great! Well, except for that shitty middle part which has always been crap.

I'm more amazed they're still going

no kidding.

They played to a crowd of 17 of us in 2006 and were great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnmYH4op5N0

out of nowhere I had the desire to listen to 1977 for the first time in ten years or so, find myself enjoying the first minute or so of a lot of the songs but not really feeling the need to listen beyond one verse and one chorus. So my answer to WBS's question of "were they any good in the first place?" is "dunno". It may be the fault of Tim Wheeler's singing, I like a dull limp singer here and there but he's on a special plane all of his own.

i was wayyy into "nu clear sounds", super trashy americanized heavy alt rock.

I like Nu Clear Sounds, too, especially "Burn Out" and Hatherley-sung b-side "Taken Out."

There's some decent songs here but I've never been a fan of the Owen Morris production treatment on this record. The drums sound as though they were recorded in a fucking wind tunnel, for a start.

i love love love the first two songs ('lose control' and 'goldfinger') and will listen to the whole record if I'm in a good mood. it ain't bad but i agree with others who've said that Wheeler can't really sing.

can't sing in comparison to... Rob Zombie?

His voice is just a ...nothing. its totally characterless.

You mean like plain hummus? I don't know if Ash would go well with garlic hummus or sundried tomato hummus.

There's some good stuff on Nu-Clear Sounds, I think. 'Folk Song' and 'I'm Gonna Fall' are two of my favourite ballads Wheeler has ever written. 'Death Trip 21' still does it for me, too!