bless

I agree that it's something fairly unique if you can have more than one opinion expressed on a forum and nobody gets offended. I expect it's something to do with the fact that, even if we all have different favourites, we still all love Ash. I don't have enough experience of Nu-Clear Sounds to rate it, but what I have heard of it (i.e. the singles and one or two plays of the album) was fairly good. The reason I prefer the debut is its teenaged brashness - they were all something like fifteen and sixteen when they recorded it, and I always maintain that musicians/artists of any sort at that age come out with things which are simply unachievable by older people. At the moment I'm listening to the Big Green Monkeys demo album (74mins of pure fun) and I'm thinking exactly the same thing - the whole album, even though it spans so many different musical styles, has this 'feel' to it that can only be achieved by the young or the young at heart. Even though the lyrics don't explicitly mention it, you just get the sense that the album's all about finishing school, and parties, and silly teenage romances. As you get older you sort of lose the ability to write so unashamedly and honestly about such a load of crap.