Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Going back to the beginning of a band’s career can seem sometimes as if you are resurrecting a forgotten beast that’s been left to graze on green pastures for too long. In groups that have been part of your life seemingly forever, it’s a chance to wallow in glories, of half remembered gigs that you attended before they struck it big and the cost of going to see them became too expensive as more and more corporate claws wormed their way into the soul of the band. The music is a memory of mates long since buried or who have fallen by the way side as you move away promising to write but never quite finding the right time or the right words to tell them.

If it is a band that you only came across in the last year and you are looking through their back catalogue after taking in all they have to say in the last couple of albums, the feeling that you recognise is one that doesn’t have the same emotional attachment as perhaps the listener has been listening to for 10, 20 or 30 years. The listener though, like the group has to start somewhere, the genesis has to be heard so you can appreciate where they are now. In Ashbury Keys’ case, the raw power and the quality that has come from the Texas band’s last couple of recordings is evident as far back as 1999 when they released their self-titled debut, the only thing missing is the gentle refinement that comes with experience.

The Texas power pop trio are amongst the giants of music of their state and in terms of West Coast America, a goliath that gets better with every release and whilst the finesse, the assurance may be missing compared to the latter releases, the debut album stands out as being enjoyable, a significant piece of work which has the hall marks of the likes of Green Day at their absolute shining best in their early days. The touch of punk, the greatness of rock in the urge to just get up and play the songs is stamped all over tracks such as Losing Touch With You, the bubbly Colour of my Eyes, Something’s Wrong and Darling Dear all stand out as songs so good, so alive with honest ability that looking back as a listener or a fan does, it is easy to see where the natural progression started.

Great sassy and in your face guitar work, the element of knowing what Ashbury Keys were to become make listening to their debut album not the slightest hard work but more of a testament to sticking to what you believe in as a band, acceptance in many things is all, in the arts it is as close some might get to a belief.

Ian D. Hall