9

Binary

Quality over quantity. Try telling that to Ash who have reached their seventeenth single in the A-Z series with Binary. The brilliantly devised series also seems to cover genres with this latest offering delving into 80’s cheese and its gloriously comical synths. Even frontman Tim Wheeler seems to have succumbed to the tawdry gimics of using a rhyming dictionary for lyrical couplets; you can even imagine the clenched fist to chest gestures.

Thankfully Ash have always been a brilliant pop band and this is no different as the track saunters towards the inspirational with a rousing chorus that X-Factor hopefuls would do well to rip off. Even if some of the lines are bordering on the laughable, each lyric is carried off by a raunchy blend of stirring guitar reverb and spongy basslines. Towards the climax, a methodically slow piano interlude seems almost Cowell-esque in its delivery, yet for longevity, Ash have done well to adapt. Only another nine singles to complete the set.