Ash – ‘Race The Night’ album review: a banal post-pandemic reunion
The Covid-19 pandemic marked the longest period in which Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray of Ash had been apart since the 1980s when they met at school in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. When the group gingerly reunited in 2021 for a livestream gig, they were apprehensive but excited to return to their beloved craft and cherished friendship.
“Madly, we sounded like we’d never been away,” McMurray commented in press materials. “We sounded better than ever. It was probably one of my favourite days of being in a band – there was just such a buzz to get back in a room together.”
Ash intended to release a follow-up shortly after releasing 2018’s Islands. In fact, they had already laid the groundwork for the next serving of energetic pop-rock, but the pandemic rained on everyone’s parade for some time. Now, Ash return in full force with Race the Night, an 11-song package that observes some good friends embracing in passionate reunion, retracing well-worn steps in their discography.
Since their Britpop baptism in the 1990s, Ash have blended several influences, most notably grunge, punk and synth-pop. Race the Night is a near-monolithic alloy of this genre-blend, which will undoubtedly serve sweet low-hanging fruit to seasoned fans but will offer very little to newbies and prospective converts.
The title track kicks the album off as it means to continue; a pacey, catchy rhythm surges forth as Wheeler’s characteristic pop-punk wail adorns with intensely banal lyrics. Throughout the album, Wheeler exchanges a sense of adventure for safe, predictable couplets.
Exhibit A: “Maybe we’re just getting older/ Do you believe it has to make you colder?/ All the things that made me feel alive/ Still make me feel alive”.
After three rock-outs, the first sign of variety comes courtesy of ‘Oslo’, a track featuring a vocal collaboration with Démira. The track begins in a mournful acoustic soundscape and builds its way back to pace as the maudlin love story reaches its climax.
The only other deviation in style is the six-and-a-half-minute ode to beer, ‘Crashed Out Wasted’. In another break from the high-octane electric guitars, the track hears Wheeler appeal to his friends: Who’s up?/ I can’t sleep tonight/ If anyone wants to get a beer/ Just give me a call/ I need one/It’s almost 2am/ The bars are still open, God damn it”.
Again, the track works its way into an intensely emotional crescendo that doesn’t necessarily concur with the lyrical subject matter. Wheeler takes this opportunity to display his instrumental talents in a protracted guitar solo.
Later in the album, ‘Double Dare’ draws character from the return of collaborator Dick Kurtaine, who offers his hands on the turntables for a few hip-hop-inspired scratches. As the band notes in press materials, this is a fond return to 1998’s Nu-Clear Sounds, which marked Ash’s last tango with Mr. Kurtaine.
Ash have returned with an album brimming with sonic urgency that’s not reflected in its creative stance. They could be excused for bringing little to the front lines of musical evolution, but as a writer with a mild aversion to pop-punk, one hoped they could bring something new and lyrically absorbing to the table. Instead, I’m convinced Race The Night is the result of a lyricist vacantly placing one foot in front of the other, contriving canned hits with no sign of necessitous or innate creative impetus.
It’s nice to know these guys are still having fun creating music, but I’d like to hear something new and conceptually intrepid.
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