Ash
Twilight Of The Innocents

THE REVIEW

"Twilight Of The Innocents" will be, according to statements by leader Tim Wheeler, the last full-length album of his beloved Ash. This is because the excellent Northern Irish band has opted for a singular choice: to release, from now on, exclusively singles. Regardless of this frankly questionable stance, the bitterness remains indeed, because the new work is, in the end, the best thing they have produced since the masterpiece "1977".

Starting from the decidedly Foo Fighters-like opener "I Started A Fire" (although the working title of the piece was "Girl Who Can't Be Owned"), the album is a journey through twelve tracks across the past, present, and a hypothetical future of the Irish trio.

The first question is: Charlotte Hatherley provided a good contribution on both technical and visual levels (really pretty girl), but the Ash fan base pointed the finger at her, accusing her of having "watered down" Wheeler's compositions with pop. What happened to the trio's music after her departure? Well, pop-oriented compositions continue to surface here and there in the lp grooves (see "Shadows" or "Dark And Stormy"), but they are counterbalanced by the stunning guitar pop-rock of numbers like the single "You Can't Have It All" or "Palace Of Excess", the latter featuring a lightning-fast solo which showcases Tim's unsuspected technical prowess on the six strings.

Of course, the usual chart-toppers are present, just think of the new single "Polaris", a remarkable blend of a Chris Martin-like piano riff, a beautiful and thick layer of strings, and a perpetually offbeat drum (immediately reminiscent, albeit very vaguely, of Corgan’s "Tonight, Tonight"). Striking, although somewhat predictable, is "End Of The World", a typically British pop ballad already scheduled as the third single. We then reach the masterpiece conclusion of the title track, a triumph of synthesizers, strings, guitars, and sudden drum rolls dominated by a notable vocal performance by Tim Wheeler.

At the end of the day, one is torn between regret for what could be and probably won’t be in the future and the joy for the excellent closure of a more than positive career up to this point. Waiting for the bimonthly single, like a sugar cube to give to the horse to keep it calm.

Infinite sadness, but what a great album.