Words always come back to bite you on the ass and Ash’s collective bums are all a stinging, as after the release of their last album proper Twilight Of The Innocents they declared that due to the death of the album they would never make one ever again. They then worked on the A-Z project where the band would just release 26 singles in a year. Ultimately these ended up as a compilation album that sounded pretty much like an ordinary Ash album anyway.
So here we are eight years later and Ash have released Kablammo! to hail their return to the album world once again. They are still a three piece and still look and sound just the same as they did all of those two decades ago. And why not? They are essentially a pop-punk band in the style of The Buzzcocks and who ever wanted a prog Buzzcock record? The A-Z project did see the trio explore different audio climates and now they have returned with a bang or a Kablammo so to speak.
The opening track ‘Cocoon‘ is basically what Ash are all about, three minutes of blistering pop-hooks with the amps turned up to the max and the album continues along these lines of radio friendly nuggets without too many surprises. ‘Let It Ride’ and ‘Go! Fight! Win!’ could pretty much have fitted in on any of the last three records and there are the usual lighter moments for Tim Wheeler to show off his higher vocal end, like on the latest single ‘Free‘.
Surely the band and management were hoping for a comeback hit like a ‘Shining Light‘ mark two, but ‘Free‘ never really manages to take flight. Which is fair to say about half the album, they have so much promise, but maybe Wheeler has finally lost the knack of that killer chorus.
The back to basic approach will please the die-hard fans and most doubters wouldn’t have expected an album half as good as this, but compared to the very best of Ash’s work Free All Angels, Kablammo! is merely just a step back into the right direction rather than an album that will ignite the bands career, but hopefully they wont burn out and end up just as…..ash. (Apologies)
