There can't be enough hours in the day for CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY at present. Not only is she boomeranging around the globe as Ash again threaten to go thermo-nuclear in America and Japan with new album "Meltdown", but she's also chosen the same time to wheel out her debut solo single (proper) "Summer" - and soon her debut album "Grey Will Fade" - on an (un)suspecting public.
"Summer", though, suggests on this occasion you can't have too much of a good thing. Charlotte's first appearance of sorts was the delectable, download-only "Kim Wilde" (which in itself caused a stir thanks to a remarkable 7,000 plus downloads from her website in under a fortnight), but "Summer" is the logical choice for the wider global handshake.
So what ensues? Simple: it's cool, crunchy riffing and linear power pop all the way and helped along no end by some resolutely beefy drumming from PJ Harvey's Rob Ellis. Your reviewer initially put hearing "serotonin" and "vicar" in the lyrics down to his afternoon spent consuming wine with some rarely-seen German friends, but even minus the alcoholic clouds it's all true. Less fortunately, ex-Magic Band man Eric Drew Feldman's mad prof piano bashing also remains when sober, but fuck it: you can't have everything and "Summer"s still a winner even allowing for attempted sabotage.
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Flipsides "Commodore" and "S.M.U.T" are rather more variable. The former begins with Charlotte in sweetly sarky mood ("Found some love from the bottom of your heart, boy I know it doesn't come easy to you") and is still a spiky pop-rock contender, but "S.M.U.T" is a less distinguished attempt at a ballbreaker, lurching towards one-dimensionality. Valerie Solanas' "S.C.U.M" was surely much better.
Still, unruly B-sides aren't to be laboured over and "Summer" is very much of its' time and surely a hipshakin' feelgood hit of the, er, summer. Perfect. Let's see where she goes with the album.
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