Ash have today released their ninth studio album, Ad Astra, via Fierce Panda Records. The album contains eleven brand new tracks, including their raucous take on surprise single and Beetlejuice staple Jump In The Line, Ad Astra also features Graham Coxon (Blur) on two particularly sassy songs and catches the perennial power pop kings in especially rocket-fueled form. Ad Astra follows hot on the heels of Race The Night, the band’s highest charting album for 20 years, and is being released two years and one month later, which is no coincidence. Ever the band who live for live music, Ash vowed that the fierce pandemic induced five year chasm between 2018’s Islands and Race The Night would never happen again.

By focusing on the endless horizon of galaxies far, far away and staring into an endless black hole Ash have somehow ended up creating a cohesive whole on Ad Astra. There is classic Ash power-pop rocking action with the blistering purity of Hallion, the crunchy chuggings of Keep Dreaming and the furious sonic lunges of Dehumanised. But equally you can’t fail to succumb to the glorious swooping jangles on Which One Do You Want? or My Favourite Ghost and its acoustic elegance, and Fun People, that features Graham Coxon, that is quite simply one of the maddest, punchiest songs they have ever recorded.

“The title Ad Astra, the worst kept secret of the last month, points to ideas that became a big identifier back in 1995, but they’re updated with 30 years life experience. I’ll leave you to compare the differences, and with the thought that while the optimistic innocence of 1995 might have been tempered by those 30 years, if you look to the stars, you might still feel a glimmer. Of hope.” (Drummer Rick McMurray)

Ash are currently on tour in the UK & Ireland on the mammoth Ad Astra Tour, the next leg of the tour will commence on the 16th November at Swansea’s Sin City and will run through to February 2026. You can view the tour dates and purchase tickets here.

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