trailer trASH? (Trailer - Ash)

Member Name: scream4bruce

Product:	Trailer - Ash
Date:	07/10/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: stand out song - 'The Intense Thing', no bad songs

Disadvantages: short, and few great songs

I'm reviewing the UK version of the album, so the tracklisting is as follows:
Season; Jack Names The Planets; Intense Thing; Uncle Pat; Get Out; Petrol; Obscure Thing

Tim Wheeler (guitar and vocals), Mark Hamilton (bass) and Rick McMurray (drums) were teenagers when they recorded their debut album. 'Trailer' shows both sides to Ash - light and dark, alternating between them on the album, with opener 'Season' a song about a friend's suicide.

Of the light side are the singles: 'Jack Names The Planets' is the only song with obvious singalong chorus, and begins with a bizarre conversation between two Dutchmen; whereas 'Uncle Pat' and 'Petrol' follows-up their verses with instrumentation - the former with a lead guitar line said by Tim to having a rural and Irish quality, whilst the latter is topped up by twinkling guitars and driven on by Mark's bass-lines.

Then there's the dark side. By far my favourite track is 'Intense Thing' - it's noise guitar, menacing bass and heavy drumming after the opening calm of clean make for an intense alternating two-chord bridge build-up to chorus. A chorus which, when it comes, you will want to be singing along to. And with the provided lyrics you can.

'Get Out' is of a three-chord punk flavour, played with speed. In the final song, Tim Wheeler's voice becomes the 'Obscure Thing' - spoken vocals are about audible, and even his growls are almost lost as they lie low in the mix, so it sounds like an instrumental, and not a strong end to the album.

Aside from 'Intense Thing', I found the album to be an average listen, hence I can only recommend it to Ash fans who haven't already got this. Trailer does exactly what it was meant to do - it's an example of what Ash would be well known for, but just don't expect it to be full of pop choruses.

Summary: Trailer by Ash