Ash My Love – Money LP (Noise Appeal Records)

Here’s another great one from the Noise Appeal Records. Maybe you stumbled upon my review of Honeymoon Blues earlier today. It’s a debut full-length album by Austrian duo Ash My Love worth checking out, and Money is a proper continuation of their earlier works that showcase many innovations in songwriting, composing, recording, and producing. It’s a natural evolvement of a duo that sounded magnificent on their debut album, but they decided to shine even brighter with their second effort. Their approach to blues and rock ‘n’ roll differs from anything you could currently hear on the contemporary blues-rock scene. Perhaps art rock and noise rock are not vividly hearable like before, but they retained many elements of these complementary genres and reshaped them to their liking. These changes resulted in a marvelous album consisting of ten exceptional compositions that will appeal to the broader auditorium than their preceding works.

Ash My Love retained the essence of their sound. You’ll notice that they’re still paying homage to the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties blues and rock ‘n’ roll aesthetics, but it would be safe to say these recordings lean much more towards the nineties and modern blues rock ambiance. The noisy aesthetics are still present in one way or another thanks to their devotion to artsy rock, noise rock, and slacker rock, but don’t exclude some interruptions of Americana, southern, country, and folk rock either. Money resonates with so many different influences that you’ll need to spin this record repeatedly several times to grasp everything Ash My Love intended to convey through their lyrics and music. I adore their flirt with Americana, southern, country, and folk rock aesthetics because these songs have a vividly hearable, rich, and luxurious ambiance that will appeal to even the pickiest fans of these genres.

This album delivers a slightly polished guitar sound than the Honeymoon Blues, but there’s still a colossal layer of distortion lurking around. You’ll notice how the raw and abrasive themes, melodies, chord progressions, and riffs pave the way for dual female and male vocal harmonies, which emphasize every note and beat with balance and finesse. Once again, low-end notes play one of the significant roles in this sonic equation by offering more than necessary heaviness, depth, and clarity to those electric guitar works. The drumming performance is more complex, with flawlessly accentuated, moderate sequences, beats, breaks, fills, and various percussions offering groove, pace, and enriching overall ambiance.

Ash My Love thoroughly planned each segment of every song, so you’ll have a fun time spinning this record. As usual, both the band and Noise Appeal Records thought about the visual identity, so Money comes with similar aesthetics as Honeymoon Blues, but with an emphasis on monochrome art. It’s also good to mention that this fine piece of sonic artistry arrives on a standard black record. Therefore, don’t waste any time, head to the Noise Appeal Records’ web store, and purchase Money as part of the Ash My Love vinyl bundle.