Review by MarkR
2½ stars out of 4
Tim Wheeler’s grunge-forged, Irish take (read: drunker) on Brit-pop
is not the most original sound you’ll ever hear, but, the theory
goes, if they invoke often enough the key memories of your favorite groups,
then you’ll mistake Wheeler’s band for one of them. Ash’s
last album, ‘96’s 1977 -- in homage of the year of STAR WARS
(the disc opens with the Millennium Falcon careening across the speakers),
if not the year the youngish trio were born -- was remarkable for two
things: the overachieving single “Goldfinger,” and a puerile
ghost track that featured drunken band members doing the projectile shuffle.
Two years (three for a delayed U.S. release), one movie theme song
(“A Life Less Ordinary”), and an additional member (the
unnoticeable Charlotte Hatherly on guitar) later, the now-quartet return
with their third collection of infectious singles, obvious swipes and
filler. Which, in the CD age, isn’t as egregious a crime it once
was. For these days you can skip over the unconscionable Nirvana thievery
of “Numbskull” (actually a single in the U.K.!), the passable
but unnecessary “Burnt Out” and the white-washed Pixies boost
“Wild Surf” (another U.K., believe it or not), to get to the
thumping, undeniable “Jesus Says,” the supersonic swagger of
“Death Trip 21” and the believably innocent pop ballad “Folk
Song.”
You start to notice that Wheeler has a way with the mid-tempo fluff that
belies his rockist tendencies. But halfway through NU-CLEAR SOUNDS
you’ll also notice the ballads getting weaker (“Low Ebb”),
the Velvet Underground-by-way-of-Jesus and Mary Chain lifts getting too
flagrant (“Fortune Teller”) and the utter ordinariness of
“A Life Less Ordinary.” The one track on the record that
sounds unlike any other, “Projects,” comes across like a dream
Creation Records roster jam session. It also reveals the lack of inspiration
elsewhere among the titles. The production, mostly by Ash and Oasis
soundman Owen Morris, polishes the tracks to a flawless enough luster,
but not a sufficiently distracting one. And one must question the wisdom
of such a Nirvana-bothering group enlisting Butch Vig to remix a trio
of songs. Often, youthful exuberance is enough to carry a dearth of
ideas. Maybe next time for Ash it will.
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