ASH have shared their new double A-side single Which One Do You Want? / Fun People (feat. Graham Coxon), the latest pair of songs to emerge from the band’s forthcoming Ad Astra album, set for release on 3 October via Fierce Panda.
Occupying two differing ends of the Ash sonic spectrum, from swooping jangle pop to towering riffs, these two new offerings find the perennial power pop kings in curious and inventive form.
Drummer Rick McMurray: “Which One Do You Want? dates back to the New York days, making it the oldest song on the album by far. So what’s the deal; why has it taken so long to find it a home? Listening to it in isolation, it’s the perfect pop song. It swoops, it soars, it sings of desire. But it didn’t fit with the last record, and it didn’t fit with what we thought at the time was the next record. I wouldn’t say it’s the reason why we paused for thought and decided to make a different record to the one we started out to make but I reckon, with hindsight, it could be seen as the hinge around which every album we release this decade rotates. It’s guitar pop for sure, but it’s utterly unlike the guitar pop we’ve been known for, and it might just be a marker in the sand for where we’re going in the second half of this decade. Is that a lot of pressure for one song to bear? Maybe, but it straddles the two sides of this band we’ve been grappling with over the last decade and holds the past and the future effortlessly in its orbit.”
Continuing about Fun People (feat. Graham Coxon), he says: “It’s been a while since Tim came to us with the most bonkers riff and declared it to be a pop song, but I’m very happy he did. Polyrhythmic, chromatic riffs might be more the sort of thing you’d associate with Devo but somehow, he’s managed to marry it with massive hooks. Big, barbed hooks that sink their claws into the Fun People that magically appear in everyday life to make it Hell. This ain’t your average Ash track. And what better way to underline that than to get guitar wizard Graham Coxon seething all over it? His unique sensibilities lend themselves so well to the angular, er, angles of the song, as do his vocals. Sing along or scream along as the case may be with some fun people like YOOOOUUUUU!!!.”
By focusing on the endless horizon of galaxies far, far away and staring into an endless black hole Ash have somehow ended up creating a cohesive whole. There is classic Ash power-pop rocking action with the blistering purity of Hallion, the crunchy chuggings of Keep Dreaming and the furious sonic lunges of Dehumanised. But equally you can’t fail to succumb to the glorious swooping jangles on Which One Do You Want? – a whirl from Marr’s canon for sure; My Favourite Ghost and its acoustic elegance, floating on strings of desire; and Fun People (feat Graham Coxon) is quite simply one of the maddest, punchiest songs they have ever recorded.
As if creating this lovingly optimistic opus wasn’t enough to be getting on with, they’ve kept themselves busy elsewhere. Since Race The Night came out, they’ve run riot at SXSW in Austin, played Belfast for Steve Lamacq during Independent Venue Week, headlined the 100 Club in London for BRITS week and toured Australia. Already this year, they’ve amassed the masses at Glastonbury for the eighth time – equaling the multi performance record of Van Morrison – and toured the UK with The Darkness.
In short, three decades into a career peppered with timeless indie-punk nuggets and wildly inventive gigging and releasing concepts, the trio shows no sign of slowing down. To infinity and beyond indeed.
Or as Rick McMurray gently muses: “The title Ad Astra, the worst kept secret of the last month, points to ideas that became a big identifier back in 1995, but they’re updated with 30 years life experience. I’ll leave you to compare the differences, and with the thought that while the optimistic innocence of 1995 might have been tempered by those 30 years, if you look to the stars, you might still feel a glimmer. Of hope.”
And for those of you wondering, Ad Astra is Latin for “to the stars”, the words that came out of a teenaged Tim Wheeler’s mouth in the summer of 1995, setting up the classic chorus to the band’s first Top 20 hit Girl From Mars.
To celebrate the release of Ad Astra, Ash embark on a huge touring schedule from this autumn and into the early part of next year as follows:
SEPTEMBER
Tue 09 LONDON Scala
Wed 10 LONDON Scala
OCTOBER
Fri 03 BRIGHTON Resident Records (Instore)
Sat 04 LONDON Rough Trade East Records (Instore)
Sun 05 LEICESTER 2 Funky Café (Truck Records Outstore)
Tue 07 NOTTINGHAM Rough Trade Records (Instore)
Wed 08 KINGSTON Circuit (Banquet Records Outstore)
Thu 09 LIVERPOOL Baltic Jacaranda Records (Instore)
Fri 10 EDINBURGH Liquid Rooms (Assai Records Outstore)
NOVEMBER
Fri 14 MINEHEAD Shiiine On Weekender Festival
Sat 15 PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
Sun 16 SWANSEA Sin City
Tue 18 NEWCASTLE Boiler Shop
Wed 19 MANCHESTER New Century Hall
Thu 20 GLASGOW SWG3 Galvanizers
Sat 22 BLACKPOOL Bootleg Social
Sun 23 SHEFFIELD The Foundry
Tue 25 OXFORD O2 Academy
DECEMBER
Fri 05 LISTOWELL Mike The Pies
Sat 06 DUNDALK Spirit Store
Sun 07 GALWAY Roisin Dubh
Tue 09 CORK Cyprus Avenue
Wed 10 LIMERICK Dolans Warehouse
Thu 11 DUBLIN The Academy
Sat 13 BELFAST Ulster Hall
FEBRUARY
Fri 06 TUNBRIDGE WELLS Forum
Sat 07 CAMBRIDGE Junction
Sun 08 MILTON KEYNES Craufurd Arms
Tue 10 EXETER Phoenix
Wed 11 BRISTOL The Trinity Centre
Fri 13 LIVERPOOL Grand Central Dome
Sat 14 STOKE ON TRENT Sugarmill
Sun 15 HULL The Welly
Tue 17 NORWICH Epic Studios
Wed 18 SOUTHEND Chinnery’s
Thu 19 BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy
Tickets: https://ash-official.com/pages/shows
AD ASTRA TRACKLIST
Zarathustra
Which One Do You Want?
Fun People (feat Graham Coxon)
Give Me Back My World
Hallion
Deadly Love
My Favourite Ghost
Jump In The Line
Keep Dreaming
Dehumanised
Ghosting
Ad Astra (feat Graham Coxon)
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