ASH have announced that their ninth studio album Ad Astra will be released via Fierce Panda Records on 3 October and have shared the lead single Give Me Back My World.
Containing eleven brand new tracks, including their raucous take on surprise single and Beetlejuice staple Jump In The Line, Ad Astra sees Graham Coxon appear on two particularly sassy songs and catches the perennial power pop kings in especially rocket-fueled form.
Ad Astra follows hot on the heels of Race The Night – the band’s highest charting album for 20 years – and is being released two years and one month later, which is no coincidence. Ever the band who live for live music, Ash vowed that the fierce pandemic-induced five year chasm between 2018’s Islands and Race The Night would never happen again.
Lead singer and guitarist Tim Wheeler comments on the new single Give Me Back My World: “If I told you this song dates back to 2020, you’d hardly need a degree from the School of Marple, Holmes and Poirot to figure out what it’s getting at. And although those sentiments may just be a memory from the standpoint of 2025, the song’s heart still feels relevant. In a time of chaos, disruption and angst there’s still a beautiful world out there and it’s worth fighting for”.
By focusing on the endless horizon of galaxies far, far away and staring into an endless black hole Ash have somehow ended up creating a cohesive whole. There is absolute classic Ash power-pop-rocking action with the blistering purity of Hallion, the crunchy chuggings of Keep Dreaming and the furious sonic lunges of Dehumanised. But equally you can’t fail to succumb to the glorious swooping jangles on Which One Do You Want? – a whirl from Marr’s canon for sure; My Favourite Ghost and its acoustic elegance, floating on strings of desire; and Fun People (feat Graham Coxon) is quite simply one of the maddest, punchiest songs they have ever recorded.
As if creating this lovingly optimistic opus wasn’t enough to be cracking on with, they’ve kept themselves busy elsewhere. Since Race The Night raced out, they’ve run riot at SXSW in Austin, played Belfast for Steve Lamacq during Independent Venue Week, toured Australia and headlined the 100 Club in London for BRITS week. Already in 2025, they’ve amassed the masses at Glastonbury for the eighth time – equaling the multi performance record of Van Morrison – and toured the UK with The Darkness.
In short, three decades into a career peppered with timeless indie-punk nuggets and wildly inventive gigging and releasing concepts, the thunderous threesome shows no sign of slowing down. To infinity and beyond indeed. Or, as Rick McMurray gently muses …
Their UK tour starts 2nd August Tickets: https://ash-official.com/pages/shows
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