Product Description

'Twilight Of The Innocents' is the sixth and final album from one of the most successful Northern Irish bands of all time, Ash. Recorded in New York and produced by the band and Michael Brauer (Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, My Morning Jacket), the album is yet another masterclass in writing great rock songs, and is sure to please the band's loyal fanbase. Includes the singles 'You Can't Have It All' and 'Polaris'.

Track Listing

1. I Started A Fire
2. You Can't Have It All
3. Blacklisted
4. Polaris
5. Palace Of Excess
6. End Of The World
7. Ritual
8. Shadows
9. Princess Six
10. Dark And Stormy
11. Shattered Glass
12. Twilight Of The Innocents

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5182 in Music
• Released on: 2007-07-02
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

A good album - which is disappointing really.
It's a strange paradox to like an album and at the same time feel it's a letdown. I'm a huge Ash fan and believe Free All Angels to be Tim Wheelers masterpiece - 13 single worthy songs, great variety in the music and adorable melodies that linger in the brain for all eternity and then some!! The follow up, Meltdown, was nearly as strong. It rocked like a beast and but for a couple of dodgy nubers might have topped it's predecessor. The problem with Twilight of the Innocents is it's a good record, but no more than that. Following on from two superb, career defining albums I'm slightly miffed they've not risen to the same standards on this effort. Maybe they're adjusting to being a three piece again?? Maybe content of that quality can't be sustained forever?? Or maybe it's just a slight blip??

Whatever the reason I have to emphasise this isn't a bad album. If anything it's getting better with each listen. There's some fantastic guitar playing from Tim, great riffs and super cool solos (isn't it refreshing to hear someone play their guitar properly as opposed to sticking with banal strumming and turgidly embarrassing lead brakes - yes that means you Carl Barat!!). The rhythm section is as energetic as ever and Tim's first shot at producing is better than people have claimed. The song's still have great melodies and are the perfect soundscape for a hot summer's day. Furthermore there are only two week tracks on here (Palace of Excess and Shattered Glass). So why am I feeling disappointed??

I think it's because there are no real standout songs. They lack that magical sprinkling of cosmic beauty that Ash have shown on Girl From Mars, Oh Yeah, Walking Barefoot, Shining Light, Burn Baby Burn, Sometimes, Meltdown, Orpheus and Won't Be Saved. Those songs get played repeatedly, give you a rush of adrenalin and have you singing along for days. The tracks on Twighlight are good but never really get under the skin in the same way. They're sturdy, functional and enjoyable as opposed to breath taking, superb and mind blowing. Maybe they miss Charlotte and what she brought to the group?? I haven't enjoyed her solo stuff and feel she's not got the personality or charisma to be out on her own. Also, her's and Tim's voices were much stronger in tandem so here's hoping they get back together at some point in the not too distant future.

So all in all a decent effort from Ash: well worth a listen but it won't change anyone's life. The band say they're only going to release singles from now on, which is a pity as they've made some sensational albums. I really hope this isn't true but I guess only time will tell. I just hope they regain the magic touch and get back to the incredible anthems of yesteryear. Here's hoping!!

Ash keep dispelling the myth
Ash have often been filed under "singles band." To me that signfies a band who write excellent about 4 good pop songs per album along with a load of filler. Ash really are not this kind of band, and their only real dip in form was around the time of Nu-Clear Sounds, the band burned out by their early success struggled to match which by anyone's standards was a great album. And Nu-Clear sounds wasn't that bad anyway. Skip forward to the present, and Ash are almost back where they started. Second guitarist Charlotte Hatherley has left and the 3 boys are on their own once again. The only thing that has changed is the content. Where once the songs were tales of adolescent summer full of dreams and hope, quite literally The Twilight of the Innocents. Now the songs are of growing up, leaving the excess and the break ups behind, and generally thinking about some more "grown up stuff." One thing that remains is Tim Wheelers ability to pen a pop song, and again the band excell throughout the album.

Starting off with a classic Ash pop song, I Started A Fire is pure melodic gold with Tim usually reasonably restrained vocally hitting all kinds of high notes. Lead singe You Can't Have It All is familiar territory, but with a dancey beat and a thumpingly good bassline, its hard to resist. Blacklisted is fairly reminiscent of their 1977 era stuff, and again features a huge chorus. Second single Polaris is a strange nut. On it's own it sounded like much of the yawnsome Keane type stuff that populates the charts. As part of the album it becomes much more important, and helps the ebb and flow of the album, and along with the title track it becomes a cornerstone of the albums lyrics "for the innocence you lost will not return" is a key lyric.

After Palace of Excess we're left with an even more bizarre choice of single, End of The World. I'm not quite sure what it is about this track but it doesn't seem to do much and as such is pretty forgettable, again though it's a bit of a blip and along with Shattered Glass they are the only skippable moments on the album. From here on we have straight up pop in Ritual and Princess Six. The biggest surprise is Dark and Stormy, a bop along pop song that heads slightly off the beaten track for Ash but like most of their songs it comes right back to a killer chorus.

Finally we're into the title track. At first the idea of Ash recording a full on epic seems a bit strange but my oh my does it work. Its a very layered and dense track with synths, orchestral sounds, big guitars and brilliant drumming topped off with one of Tim Wheelers best vocals. Its a song that just has to be heard live too, the band pull this off amazingly well.

Twilight of the Innocents is a stellar album and has more than enough moments of brilliance for repeated listens. It's not quite as good as the likes of 1977, but it makes a damn fine fist of it and tries a few new things along the way.

Like Avril Lavigne with a male singer
Before buying the album, I read all the reviews and I'm surprised it was rated that high - I find this album quite disappointing. Most earlier albums had at least one stand-out track... think Goldfinger, Oh Yeah, Goldfinger or Wildsurf or Shining light. This one doesn't. The songwriting is unimaginative and the production overly polished. The songs remind me more of bland American bands like Blink182 or Hole, they miss the edge, the 'Ash touch'. But while Ash might not get it right every time, when they do get it right, they REALLY get it right. So I'll forgive Ash for this mishap and hope for a brilliant next album.