“Free All Angels” is Ash’s 3rd full-length release, and their most successful. This band hails from Downpatrick Co. Down in Ireland, consisting of Tim Wheeler (vocals and guitar), Mark Hamilton (bass) and Rick McMurray (drums). A second guitarist, Charlotte Hatherly (of Australian via English origin) was added in 1997. Together, Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte have shown how much one can accomplish by their age (an average of 25). Ash already have released a greatest hits record celebrating their 10 year recording career. If you haven’t heard of this band already, take a listen to FAA to see what you’ve been missing.
This is by far Ash’s most diverse album. The record starts out with the breezy “Walking Barefoot”.
The second track “Shining Light” is an ode to Tim’s girlfriend.
The third cut from the record is the biggest hit, “Burn Baby Burn”.
Fourth on FAA comes “Candy”, which has a campy video to go along with its sticky sweetness. It’s far from the normal Ash song, but the sampling is incredible and it is really an irresistible song.
Next is “Cherry Bomb”, which again conveys the somewhat sexual innuendoes of Ash’s music.
“Submission” is next up and was co-written by Rick. This track also utilizes some sampling, and is rather randy in tone. The things we never knew about Rick!
The record slows down a bit with “Someday” a more tender track in which Tim sings, “Someday…we’ll leave this town, it wears us down…Someday”.
Taking a totally different twist it “Pacific Palisades”, the shortest song on the record, drenched in Brian Wilson.
Bassist, Mark, who has written more of Ash’s darker tunes, penned “Shark”, which is reminiscent of Nirvana, and true to Mark’s song writing style.
“Sometimes” is my personal favorite track, mostly for its lyrical content. It’s a brooding song with an absolutely great guitar riff through it. Wheeler sings in the chorus, “Sometimes it happens feelings die. Whole years are lost in the blink of an eye. We once had it all but events conspire. Sometimes”.
“Nicole” is another track penned by Mark. The memorable line in this one goes, “Oh Nicole! I killed my baby but I loved her!”
“There’s A Star” is another one of the big singles from FAA. It’s slower, more jangly, but pure pop in the style of the record.
“World Domination” is technically the last track. This song embraces all that Ash is doing with FAA. They took Europe ages ago, now it’s the rest of the World’s turn to know Ash.
This being the U.S. version, it has a bonus track called “13th Floor”.
There is also a brilliant DVD included in this release of FAA. It includes all the videos from the record, live footage, a documentary and B-sides. Any serious music fan should pick up this one. Ash put on an energetic live show, are great to their fans and are really one of the coolest rock bands on the planet at the moment. Check them out with Saves the Day on December 8th.
