Almost every album from an established band comes with advance hype: they’ve gone hip hop, they’ve ditched the guitars, they’re experimenting with loops, they’ve discovered Eastern mysticism!
Ash (three quarters Irish, one quarter English) are no different. The word on Meltdown (coming a long three years from their previous effort) was that the perennial pop rockers had returned from the US with a CD full of metal numbers, or at least some hard ‘n’ heavy rock.
However, the thing about Ash is that, but for a few regular updates, they pretty much always deliver more of the same. Still, given that Ash have, for the most part, rocked, this is a good thing.
Meltdown jumps off the blocks with those updates in full effect. The title track does indeed snap, crackle and rock. The riffs are heavier, with added snarl, and the feeling (“I think my head is gonna explode!”) is runaway, breathless. (Later, “Clones” and “Detonator” will ride this same rock ecstasy.)
But by the second track, Ash give themselves away - “Orpheus” comes on all tough and boasts a sinewy drum breakdown, but it soon slips into a chorus so heavenly, you’d think it could never possibly be topped… until the next track, “Evil Eye”, serves up one just as good.
Yes, Ash rock hard at times on Meltdown, but main songwriter Tim Wheeler remains a pop romantic with a sweeping lovelorn side a million and one emo boys would kill for (check out the skyscraping “You know that I’d die for you” on the hit-in-waiting “Starcrossed”). And his hooks refuse to let go after one solitary listen.
Business as usual then, for Ash - feel-good, pop-rockin’, kinda saucy, a little bitey, but still safe-as-houses. In a word: addictive.
Rating: 4/5