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I liked Irish music until I heard this. Wonderful to realise there are some Irish people without a single musical note in their entire collective bodies. Tim sings up to standard and you know what that means. Buy this and suffer the pangs of Hades.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Cd 1 of this album is absolute perfection! "Burn Baby Burn", "Shining Light" and "Sometimes" are three of the best songs around! However the best thing about this album is that all the songs are relatively short. Most of the songs are perfect singles. Trust me you wont buy a better CD for this price!BUY IT!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Although only in their twenties, Northern Ireland's Ash have been around for many years, and have survived hard times as well as revelling in real success, including this collection of singles. Their tracks vary quite a bit, ranging from the intense shouty Numbskull to the pop-tastic Wildsurf, the beautifully poignant Sometimes and the exhuberantly orchestral Candy. Essentially they hinge around power-pop, with airy riffs and optimistic lyrics, mostly about love and lust. Anyone who likes Weezer or Fountains Of Wayne will love this.Most of the tracks on here are extremely impressive - both Shining Light (a melancholic ballad which can be seen as being about love, God or drugs, depending on interpretation) and Burn Baby Burn (the ultimate in singalong rock) having won Single Of the Year awards (for the same year). Sometimes is my absolute favourite though, the sheer beauty has to be heard to be believed.The earlier hits such as Girl From Mars and Oh Yeah have such wistful innocence and joie de vivre that it's hard not to be impressed, especially as the band wrote them while still at school. Although their Nu-Clear Sounds album wasn't as commercially successful, it supplies three great tracks here - Numbskull, Jesus Says and Wildsurf.The second disk is superb as well, comprising some of their classic bonus tracks. They've clearly taken a lot of pride in many of these, most would be up to album standard, and several (especially The Sweetness Of Death, Nocturne and 13th Floor) could easily be hts in their own right. The Sweetness of Death is almost certainly the only song ever to make a melody out of the word 'melatonin', which has to be worth something in itself.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Ash are a band that sound as youthful as they are. They have the same lyrical obsessions as early Beach Boys - sun, surf and young love. Witness gorgeous singles such as 'Burn Baby Burn', 'Girl From Mars', 'Oh Yeah', 'Walking Barefoot', 'Wildsurf' - and the list continues. Most of Ash's singles have a smiliar mood, evoking the end of high school and the end of summer as a sun-bleached wonderland. This could lack substance (again, like early Beach Boys) but the music is fantastic, blistering, insanely catchy pop-punk. Though many of Ash's singles do have a similar lyrical theme, the music is never tired, never repetitive. Listen to the tumbling strings of 'Oh Yeah', the music echoing the movement of 'her hair came undone in my hands' and then the unruly handclaps that puncture 'Kung Fu'. Each song is an eternally perfect pop moment. This is rock with a sun tan eating candyfloss, but without the fluffiness. There's grit in there, the snarling guitars, the underrated rhythm section.And Ash have always shown maturity beyond their youth, even as they make themselves eternally 17 - listen to 'Sometimes' as prove of sad resignation of an ended affair.This is a great compilation, with a few good B-Sides on the bonus disc too - tracks 1 and 2 being particularly lovely. The only downside with this compilation is that if you own any of their albums (Free All Angels especially) you will already own a significant number of these songs. This singles collection is made up of only 3 albums worth of songs - all 3 of which are cheap and excellent, and you may as well buy them rather than this compilation, good as it is.Ash are a happy band. They don't particularly push boundaries, but what they do they do absolutely fantastically. I believe that writing a perfect 3 minute pop(punk) moment is one of the greatest achievements a musician can have, and Ash achieve it with ease. A lovely, essential compilation for anyone with any interest in good music, no matter the era or genre. Summer can last a lifetime.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Ash. Everybodies got to have at least heard one of there songs,and this album is essential to anyone who has even hummed to ash.For a start, altogether there are 41 tracks on the two discs none of which are remotely bad. Disk one has all of the singles that they released up to 2002 and is just brilliant to crash out to after a long day. Disk 2 is quite alot more heavy and is the ultimate B-sides album by any band. The highlight has definately got to be the "cantina band" cover which is absolutely brilliant. If you dont trust my review, look at every one elses reviews, yes they are pretty much all 5 stars...BUY IT!

Rating: 5 out of 5