WISHBONE ASH: Coat Of Arms (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

While France has just gone through a period of social tension due to the delicate subject of pensions, some people are not wondering about the age at which they will be able to take it, little concerned about interrupting their careers and eager to play extra time for as long as possible. Such seems to be the case of Andy Powell, a happy seventy-year-old who has been at the helm of Wishbone Ash for 50 years. For its jubilee and six years after its successful album "Blue Horizon", the English group releases its 23rd album, "Coat of Arms".

Wishbone Ash has a very characteristic style, recognisable in particular by the interaction of its two lead guitars, to which it has remained faithful since its beginnings. And this new album is no exception to a rule that has proven itself for so many years. The eleven tracks on "Coat of Arms" revive this mix of more or less spicy rock and folk, without any particular originality but whose melodic qualities don't need to be demonstrated anymore. The direct, almost simple aspect of the songs allows to apprehend them effortlessly, but many small digressions, changes of theme and tempo, bring them depth without weighing down the whole unnecessarily. If the strong point of the band remains its guitar playing, superimposing in multiple layers riffs, arpeggios and solos made by Andy Powell and Mark Abrahams, let's not forget to salute the work of a rhythmic pair admirably supporting the whole. Finally, if Andy Powell is not endowed with an extraordinary voice, his performance remains nevertheless very pleasant.

While remaining within the perimeter of a groovy rock, "Coat of Arms" is nevertheless quite diversified. After an upbeat opening, personified by 'We Stand As One', an energetic and powerful rock anthem as we like them, Wishbone Ash will take us on a walk between heavy rock flirting with hard rock ('Coat of Arms'), direct and peachy rock ('Drive', 'Too Cool For AC', Back In The Day', 'When The Love Is Shared'), ballads ('Floreana', 'It's Only You I See') and folk ('Empty Man', the medieval 'Deja Vu') without ever getting tired.

The band has a few good surprises in store for us, like this 'Empty Man' with a not too strong and danceable country sound, with an "Indian" side given by the rhythmics, on the long 'It's Only You I See' which, after a cosy and padded first part like a piano bar (without piano), concludes with a formidable instrumental stretching over the last 4 minutes where the guitars remind us that we listen to Wishbone Ash, between the rhythmic parts with the typical phrasing of the band and the lead parts frequently flying into stratospheric highs, or the strange 'Personal Halloween', groovy and funky, whose satirical tone ends the album in beauty.

Over the years, Wishbone Ash demonstrates brilliantly with "Coat of Arms" that a band can stay true to the style that contributed to its success without getting tired or distorting itself. - Official website

WISHBONE ASH

COAT OF ARMS

SPV STEAMHAMMER

ROCK