Nu-Clear Sounds brings together a wide range of musical influences in songs served up by British power pop outfit Ash. This well-polished album includes heavy alternative rockers like “Jesus Says”, “Numbskull”, and “Death Trip 21” as well as tender tracks like “Wild Surf, “Folk Song”, and “I’m Gonna Fall”. Lead vocalist Tim Wheeler moves seamlessly from painting an ethereal canvas on one track to madly lashing out on the next. Other standout tracks include “Low Ebb”, “Projects”, and “A Life Less Ordinary”, the last of which was written by the band for the 1998 film of the same name. Nu-Clear Sounds is clever songwriting in a power pop shell.
Doesn’t it seem as though Brit Pop has been dormant lately? Those rabble-rousing Gallagher brothers are keeping a low profile, and overall this hasn’t been the year for the latest and greatest rock records making their way across the Atlantic every five minutes - that was so ’97. But a steady stream of U.K. music-makers coming over here keeps us on our toes, if for nothing else than as a basis for comparison, especially after the SugarSmashRayMouth summer we just had. So let’s raise the periscope and see what’s beyond the horizon, shall we?
Ash, having already been a big hit in England (but lesser known here), is comprised of three former metal-loving lads from Downpatrick, Ireland (vocalist/guitarist Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton, and drummer Rick McMurray) and one classically trained pianist turned guitarist girl from London, Charlotte Hatherley. The foursome is making their sophomore contribution with Nu-Clear Sounds. So, have we been missing anything lately? Is Ash the band that’s going to reinvigorate people’s verve for the Queen’s rock? Or will it will it all remain a blur?
Hmmmm… Ash does have an interesting sound, especially if you like the Pixies, as they’ve said they do. Tracks like the fanciful “Wild Surf” and the eerily Pix-similar “Numbskull” sound like Pixie tribute tunes with their off-key guitar riffs (hey - they were a tremendous band - there are worse things to draw from). The LP also has quite a few nice slow dreamy tunes like “Low Ebb”, the ethereal “I’m Gonna Fall”, the sweetly mellow “Burn Out”, the sad-sounding “Aphrodite”, and the lovely and nostalgic “Folk Song”. Frontman Wheeler writes a lot about being forlorn - not that there’s anything wrong with that. The more fervent rock songs, when not sounding Pixie-ish, are a bit all over the map. The anomalous head-banging “Death Trip 21”, about a dead drug dealer, hits you between the eyes with its searing guitar, while the single, “Jesus Says”, is appropriately poppy, but not particularly distinguished with its “woo-hoos”.
So in answer to the afore posed question: Nu-Clear Sounds may not be the album that’s going to get you to rehang your Union Jack or regrow your sideburns, but there’s enough good stuff here at least to make you crave a crumpet.
Long live the Queen.