Album review: Ash – Ad Astra

All bands eventually have to grow up, but Ash are living proof that they don’t ever have to grow old. Their last record, 2023’s Race The Night, was a gravity-defying, stone cold alt.rock classic that became their biggest hit in 20 years, apparently prompting them to put the proposed synth-rock follow-up on hold in favour of this album. But Ad Astra is no stopgap, instead buccaneering through time and space with the same verve and vigour that made Ash so exciting when they first beamed down to earth with Jack Names The Planets (starting a space obsession that still burns brightly through this album).

Indeed, Ash’s ninth full-length distils all the great things from their incredible subsequent career into one, all-bases-covered extravaganza. Welcome to the multiverse of Ashness! So, while there are plenty of classic punky power-pop anthems (Give Me Back My World, Keep Dreaming), Ad Astra is a record where all of their many iterations can co-exist in a sort of Everything Everywhere All At Once mash-up.

So, make room for: sci-fi instrumentals (Zarathustra, aka the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme); Smiths-y jangle pop (Which One Do You Want?); acoustic balladry (My Favourite Ghost); and grunged-up, quiet-loud menace (Dehumanized). Two songs feature Blur’s Graham Coxon in full garage-gonk mode (the title-track and the irresistible gonzo stomp of Fun People), while they even chuck in a surf-punk version of Jump In The Line – a calypso number made famous by Beetlejuice – that will surely be an indie disco hit in every available dimension.

The end result is maybe not as coherent as Race The Night, but it’s every bit as fun. Almost 30 years since Ash named their debut album 1977, after the year that Star Wars was released, the Force is still strong with these ones.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Weezer, The Stooges, Nirvana

Ad Astra is out now via Fierce Panda