Ash’s final album ‘Twilight of the Innocents’ today entered the UK album chart at a rather disappointing number 32. The album unfortunately dropped a few places from it’s mid week position of number 28, and is the first time an Ash album has not entered the top 10.

Following the release of singles ‘You Can’t Have It All’ and ‘Polaris’ Ash’s new and final album ‘Twilight of the Innocents’ will finally be released on Monday, 2nd July, on CD, 12″ vinyl and download.

To celebrate the much anticipated release, Ash will playing a run of four nights at the London Koko, from Tuesday to Friday next week. A few tickets are still available.

The Japanese release of ‘Twilight of the Innocents’ will be released on 2CDs and features ‘You Can’t Have It All’ B-side ‘Saskia’ as a bonus album track and a second live CD featuring material spanning across 13 years of Ash.

CD1
01. I Started A Fire
02. You Can’t Have It All
03. Blacklisted
04. Polaris
05. Palace Of Excess
06. End Of The World
07. Ritual
08. Shadows
09. Princess Six
10. Dark And Stormy
11. Shattered Glass
12. Twilight Of The Innocents
13. Saskia

CD2
01. Lose Control
02. Burn Baby Burn
03. You Can’t Have It All
04. Orpheus
05. Walking Barefoot
06. Polaris
07. A Life Less Ordinary
08. Girl from Mars
09. Twilight Of The Innocents
10. Petrol
11. I Started A Fire
12. Kung Fu

Ash have made a statement denying the recent rumours that are about to split up but have confirmed that their forthcoming record ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’ will be their last.

Speculation about the band’s future started on Saturday (June 9) at the Isle Of Wight Festival, when their frontman Tim Wheeler introduced their new title track by telling the audience it was the last song from their ‘last album’. However the band have ended speculation over their future, explaining that they will continue but will not release albums in the conventional way any more.

‘The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn’t helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album. I’m constantly disappointed with records I buy,’ declared Wheeler. ‘I believe our new album is the pinnacle of everything we’ve done thus far, and I’m proud that this will be remembered as our last album. The future lies elsewhere and we can have a lot of fun by changing things up. It’s like the Wild West at the moment and a time to take chances and try out new ideas.’

The band explained that they will use digital means to distribute their songs, which they hope to do more often then the current system allows.

‘When you’re tied to the album format, you find yourself waiting six months between finishing a record and releasing it,’ said the singer. ‘By leaving this behind we can enter a new phase of spontaneity and creativity. We have our own studio in New York, we can record a track and release it the next day if we feel like it, give it to people while it’s fresh. We’re the first band to do this, but I very much doubt we’ll be the last.’

He added: ‘We’ve been one of the best singles bands of the last two decades and we’re still younger than a lot of bands on the current scene. I’m excited to push this claim further by dedicating ourselves wholly to the art of the single for the digital age.’

Ash’s ‘final’ album ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’ will be released on July 2nd.

Andrew Kelsall, a graphic designer over at sqwink.com has written an informative review on the artwork for Ash’s forthcoming album. ‘Twilight of the Innocents’, out Monday 2nd July, as well as artwork for the bands previous albums. Be sure to head and over and give it a read

Well after teasing everyone for the past few months playing the Hangman game on the official website, Ash have today finally announce the title and full details for the new album!

The album will be called ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’ and it will be released on Monday 2nd of July just before to the bands run of four shows in four days at Koko in London. The full track listing for the album runs as follows:

01. I Started A Fire
02. You Can’t Have It All
03. Blacklisted
04. Polaris
05. Palace Of Excess
06. End Of The World
07. Ritual
08. Shadows
09. Princess Six
10. Dark And Stormy
11. Shattered Glass
12. Twilight Of The Innocents

The track ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’ was previously known as ‘In Hell’ or ‘The Boy Who Lived In Hell’, ‘Palace Of Excess’ was known as ‘Suicide Girls’ while ‘Ritual’ was previosuly known as ‘Roulette’.

“After almost a year since we started demo-ing the album is recorded and all mixing is complete… All that is left is the mastering. It’s been a long haul!”

“So after a successful first week of mixing with Michael Brauer we’re well underway and have 6 songs mixed and completed.

‘I Started A Fire’, ‘Polaris’, ‘You Can’t Have It All’, ‘Subterraneans’ (AKA Suicide Girls), ‘End Of The World’ and ‘Shattered Glass’ are all finished and we’re well happy with the results.

On Monday we’ll be getting stuck into ‘In Hell’ which we’re looking forward to, we wanna make this song blow peoples socks off!”

“We had inital reservations (Michael having mixed for Coldplay, Travis, The Kooks) but gave him a shot at doing one song before Christmas to see if it worked out. We’re always in on the mix aswell so if we don’t like the direction it’s going in we have it changed. We wouldn’t let Michael mix this album if he was gonna make it tame. The 3 tracks we’ve already mixed are sounding great. ‘You Can’t Have It All’ was a difficult mix that took a long time but we nailed it last night around 1am and we’re very happy with how it’s turned out.

Truth is Michael really wants to get doing some ‘rockier’ stuff and see’s this album as a good chance to show he can.

Production wise deffo rawer than Meltdown which was prob too slick but hey that’s what we were trying to do with it.

We’ve pulled out all the stops on a few songs which kinda suited it but there’s also stuff we’ve wanted to keep more basic.

The album titles decided but the label want to hold off on announcing it until closer to release for press reasons.” - Mark

Yesterday Ash began the mixing process in New York with Michael Brauer. Michael’s mixed loads of massive records including Coldplay, Travis, The Kooks, Ben Folds and Idlewild. He’s really into making Ash’s album sound amazing and after the first 2 mixes; ‘Polaris’ and ‘I Started A Fire’ Ash are stoked with the results. Today ‘You Can’t Have It All’ is being mixed.

‘I Started A Fire’ was previously known as ‘Can’t Be Owned’ / ‘The Girl Who Can’t Be Owned’. It’s set to be the album opener, it’s pretty rocking and you’ll be hearing it very soon.

Charlotte Hatherley has confirmed the tracklisting for here second solo album ‘The Deep Blue’: The album is due for release early next year.

Cousteau
Be Thankful
I Want You To Know
Again
Wounded Sky
Behave
Love’s Young Dream
Roll Over (Let It Go)
Very Young
Dawn Treader
It Isn’t Over
Siberia