Monday, December 14, 2020

Day 0835 - 1977

Ash "1977" (1996)

Not the first band to name an album or a song for the year they were born, and certainly not the last.   1977 also being the year Star Wars was released, the album opens with the sound of a TIE-fighter and ends with the clear Star Wars reference of track "Darkside Lightside" (the band also recorded a cover of "the Cantina Song" from Star Wars as a b-side for single "Girl From Mars").

The band were still teenagers when they entered the studio to work on the album, stating that they became nocturnal creatures, being introduced fairly rapidly to drugs by their producer.   

Despite all of this, and having put aside some freakout noise tracks they'd worked on in their murky studio state, the album is a gorgeous slice of pop-rock, with catchy singles like "Girl From Mars" and "Goldfinger" showing the young band's already mature songsmithing.  The opening and closing tracks show the band displaying some blistering pop-punk with emphasis on the punk.

No comments:

Post a Comment