Ash - 'Polaris'

Having heard ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’ in all its grim entirety, Tim Wheeler’s recent assertion that it’s to be their “final album” comes as a welcome (if sad) admission, the musical equivalent of putting a BSE-infected cow out of its misery with a single bullet to the head. Token ballad ‘Polaris’ is indicative of Ash, model 2007: the problem isn’t that their sound has barely shifted an inch since the days of ‘1977’ (this is the point someone mentions Oasis), but that all spark and vitality seems to have been sucked out of the music. Teenage kicks without the kicks and, er, the teenage bit. Still, nice packaging: flashing lights earn an extra half star, easy.

Released 18/06/07 on Warners