Ash’s collection is brimful of… erm, hits

Unless you are at school or dead-boring job, time flies and it feels quite unbelievable that almost 8 years have eclipsed since the day I interviewed Ash for the first time in a B&B near Stamford Bridge. Well, it is as this collection of singles confirms. And, what a fine compilation it is…

The three fresh faced Northern Irish boys, while still at school, emerged in 1994 and took the charts by storm, bringing their enthusiastic pop-rock to the cultural smorgasbord. The first trio of seven-inchers were moderately (i.e. indie-charting) successful – ‘Jack Names The Planets’, ‘Petrol’, ‘Uncle Pat’ – but things picked up big time with ‘Kung Fu’ and ever since they’ve been hitlist regulars. And, the three-boy-band has enlarged the personnel and its sex appeal quotient by adding Charlotte Hatherley on guitar.

Nowadays a compilation is not only a collection of old hits – no, artists don’t get off so easy alike in the ‘olden’ days – but to qualify for charts, it has to contain new songs. Thus, among the assortment that documents the band’s progression from garage-pop, via post-grunge, Britpop and metal-pop to the current poptastic rock, we have ‘Envy’ that shows the band still being on the ball as ever… Almost.

There was a period where it appeared the band were to implode; in 1998, when ‘Nu-Clear Sounds’ was released, they had truly moved into the cliché-land. (It still produced two hits, ‘Jesus Says’ and ‘Wild Surf’.) Luckily for all, they recovered quickly and have continued to create songs that touch hearts and souls across the globe. For this reason, it is good that this is not a chronological collection, as the early singles fit in better buried among the latter (and stronger) songs.

Although Tim Wheeler is seen as the songwriter and leader of the band, several tracks here are co-credited or authored by other members. Ash is a band, a unit with a common goal of making infectious songs that bring light to charts, joy to radio playlists and fun to the airwaves.

We need more people like Ash but that would only make them less precious… Here is (a glass of Moet bubbles) to a future compilation!

8/10