A review of an Ash CD reissued

ASH

1977 Collector's Edition/Remastererd

Rhino

Tim Wheeler was still at school when he wrote the band's full-length debut (although the mini-album that preceded it, Trailer, is also a mini-classic) and its exuberance shows. The band come racing out of the traps with a giddy pop sound that bears comparison to their provincial colleagues, The Undertones. The album's title is a nod to Wheeler's Star Wars fixation (it was the year the first film in the franchise was released) and also to the year that punk broke. Although they came from a hard-rocking background, at
the time of its release in 1996 the most cited comparison was The Buzzcocks. Easy to see why with the strength of the singles off this: Girl From Mars, Kung Fu, Goldfinger and Oh Yeah. This is just brilliant guitar pop music. I'm not sure why the band feel the need to release a three-disc 66-song edition of this album - there are all sorts of alternate takes and demos on the collection, and even an Abba cover - as this will surely only appeal to their fanbase. But maybe's that the point.

BRIAN BOYD