Twilight of the Innocents
| Twilight of the Innocents | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Ash | ||||
| Released | 29 June 2007 (Ireland) 2 July 2007 (UK/US) |
|||
| Recorded | May 2006–January 2007 | |||
| Genre | Pop,power pop | |||
| Length | 51:26 | |||
| Label | Infectious | |||
| Producer | Tim Wheeler | |||
| Ash chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Twilight of the Innocents | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Drowned in Sound | 7/10 |
| Guardian Unlimited |   |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.1/10 |
| Stylus Magazine | B |
| Yahoo! Music |   |
Twilight of the Innocents is the fifth studio album by Ash, released on 29 June 2007 in Ireland and 2 July 2007 in the United States and the United Kingdom. The album was produced by Tim Wheeler, and mixed by Michael Brauer.
In 2006, Ash bought the lease for three years for a recording studio in New York City, and decided to record their follow up to 2004's Meltdown here. This album marks the band's first release since returning to its original "power trio".
The songs recorded from this album were intended to have a substantially different sound from the Californian rock of "Meltdown" and to acquire more of a "tight 70s guitar band sound", and less of a polished sound that their previous albums had. The band planned to road test their new tracks by "playing out and about in tiny New York bars, unannounced, just for fun."
By September, the album had the working title of 5.5, due to the band considering the album to be their fifth and a half album. The band were continuing to record demos, with the intention of using 14 or 15 of the demos to record for the album itself. This month the band also played their debut gig since returning to a three, their first in 14 months. The gig was held in New York, at a party by the record producer and DJ Arthur Baker. The band debuted two new tracks at the party: "What Is the Meaning?" and "Roulette".
In October, the band played their second gig, debuting the same songs, at a concert organized by Spin magazine at the Annex in New York. By this point the band had decided upon the 14 of the demos they were to record for the album: "I Started a Fire", "Suicide Girls", "Shadows", "Roulette" (previously called "Keep It In"), "Princess Six", "Polaris", "Dark and Stormy", "You Can't Have It All", "End of the World", "Blacklisted", "Shattered Glass", "Saskia", "What Is the Meaning?" and "In Hell". The other tracks are to be relegated to appear either as B-sides, on future albums, or simply scrapped altogether. During October and November the band recorded the guitar and drums parts for the tracks.
In late November and early December, Wheeler began to record the vocals for the album. As well as this, the string sections for "Polaris" and "In Hell" were recorded with a 20 piece orchestra in Los Angeles at this time. Some rough mixes were done for the tracks in December also. In January 2007, Michael Brauer was recruited to mix the album. The vocals were being finished off at this time (despite Wheeler coming down with the flu) also. After around a fortnight, the tracks were finished being mixed, and the songs were mastered.
...
Wikipedia