Imagine the scene. It’s the early 1990s. The University of Ulster’s new student magazine is gaining a bit of traction. The bright-eyed and fearless young editors have done well in speaking to many bands people have heard of, to the point where music is arriving unsought for review. One such package is an exciting bundle from a bunch of scallywags from County Down. ‘Real music by real teenagers’ the accompanying letter proclaims. It surrounds two copies of the 7″ single Jack Names The Planets by an up-and-coming local band called Ash … The rest is a kind of history. Ash are now middle-aged and mega-famous; the bright-eyed editor has lost his hair and gained 30lbs. The universe revolves and the arrival of the new Ash album Ad Astra in my digital letterbox completes a cometary orbit that’s over thirty years in the making.

Ad Astra. A nod to a lyric in Girl From Mars and, of course, part of the recurring space/science fiction motif that permeates the Ash canon. But what is this album? It really is an album, full of snapshots and signals from the past and the future. The cinematic opener Zarathustra samples Richard Strauss‘ tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra, familiar to sci fi fans as the opening theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Which One Do You Want? Is dreamy Johnny Marr guitar pop with the bite that Chris Martin mislaid 20 years ago. For Fun People, Graeme Coxon brings his chirpy Blurry edge to this crunching pop tune that jitters and skitters through grunge air fried with syrupy bleepery to make a confection that defies pigeonholing but is a melange of modern-sounding heavy pop. 

Give Me Back My World is classic Ash mid-tempo guitar pop from any era melding unexpected chord changes with sublime tunefulness. Hallion is the band’s call to home (A hallion is a rascal, a messer, a good-for-nothing in Norn Iron slang) and the whole affair is an affectionate slice of Undertonesy social realism, a love song to the bad girl you shouldn’t want (She’s a wee joyrider/Devil hides inside her …). It kicks off with a nod to popular Northern Irish social media memes before thundering into a growling singalong tune with a surprisingly tender coda. Deadly Love is stuttering, majestic U2-tinged rock while My Favourite Ghost finds the band in mellow, reflective form as they document lost love – another Ash theme – in a song that is simply beautiful. 

Jump In The Line finds the band in not altogether serious mode as they treat us to an odd punk carnival calypso vibe (check out the video: Tim Wheeler fights his zombie girlfriend in a caravan, eventually decapitating her with a Flying V guitar). Keep Dreaming brings us back to more familiar territory with its uplifting heavy riffing and AOR rock guitar soloing. Very Cars, very 80s film soundtrack with a contemporary feel. Dehumanised circles back to another familiar trick, the gentle, reflective moment crashing into fiery major/minor transitions. Iron fist, velvet glove. Ghosting is a gorgeously, gloriously tuneful toe-tapper that chronicles the other side of broken love. Title track Ad Astra is a deliciously uplifting album closer full of spacey hopefulness with that unsettling sci-fi synth undercurrent and Coxon‘s cheeky chappy call and answer vocal that coils and boils into one gigantic optimism-fest of squealing guitar excess.

Ad Astra is a brilliant album from a band who have never tried to be anything other than what they want to be. Thematically secure while musically diverse, unsettlingly familiar and distractingly comforting. We recommend you go there.

Ad Astra is out now on Fierce Panda Records. Catch the band on their UK and Ireland tour through the winter and into 2026.

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