STRANGE AFFAIR

Though not outstanding, this is a good album, it was the last to feature Ted and Martin Turner before Andy Powell took the helm.

The CD has excellent sound quality, most interesting tracks for me are "Strange Affair", a typical Wishbone Ash rocker, "Wings of Desire", a reggae-style beat with some interesting lead guitar interplay, IMO one of the best tracks on the album, "Dream Train" is another traditional sounding rocker with a very catchy chorus as has "Standing in the Rain", some good guitar riffs and solid drumming.

Although a good album which contains some interesting songs and guitar, this is not prog, this will please WA fans so i would really recommend good but not essential.

Strange Affair was the third album by the reunited Mk I Ash lineup, and the weakest of the three, mainly because of the song selection, which didn't feature enough from Martin Turner whose songwriting, singing, bass playing and production defines the Ash sound. (This is clear when you listen to mid-80s and post-1991 Ash albums without him.) But the playing, production and sound quality on Strange Affair are excellent. There are some good tunes on the album, like Andy Powell's Dream Train. The standout track is Standing In The Rain, which was written by Ted Turner, not Andy Powell as listed above.

This is indeed a strange affair?

Some good rocking elements are available during the title track, but the "Police" oriented "Wings Of Desire" just sounds flat. It is just some poor reggae/rock track which has been played a lot of times already. No interest at this time of the century: such music was inventive some thirteen years ago (at the time of release) but what was the point to record such a track in the nineties???

Unfortunately, the bluesy "Renegade" is not any better. You can imagine some combination of heavy rock with blues. It is not really of my liking to say the least and even when the band reverts to some more straight forward rock music ("Dream Train", I can't be enthusiast either: basic US / FM rock: that's it.

The poor and syrupy "Some Conversation" wouldn't convert a prog fan: this below average rock ballad is just lacking of spirit. And what should I say about "See You Will" and the rock'n'rolling "Rollin"? Sub, sub-par music. Really!

This is not a good album to listen to. I am looking to one single song that would be outstanding, but I can't find any. On the contrary, this is just a long series of boring items all the way through (except the opening track and "Hard Times" probably). I should also mention the closing "Standing In The Rain" which is jolly good rocking and features a great beat. It conveys a lot of fun, and great guitar parts which were quite needed after all of these weak moments.

Oh yes! There are three "bonus" tracks available on the latest release: they all feature some "great" brass elements. Needless to say that the "press next" key is warmly welcome. Two stars for the whole of this album sound legitimate to my ears. If I were you, I would stick to their debut album or "Argus" or even "There's The Rub". You shouldn't spend any money on this one.

Hate and war. The only things we got today.

Their first album without their founding drummer Steve Upton. They hired two guys to fill his gap... The result is yet another passable album.

My track-by track opinion is as follows:

Strange Affair: The eccentric riff is somewhat irritating, I don't enjoy the song.

Wings Of Desire: Radio friendly feel-good rocker with no significant quality. Others have done it much better.

Renegade: Southern rock feeling in this one, sounds like toned-down Lynyrd Skynyrd. Not bad.

Dream Rain: An essence of 70s Wishbone Ash on this one, my mind went straight to albums like Wishbone Four or Front Page News. A pleasant song, but not a great one.

Some Conversation: Soft rock was never my thing, but great music can come from every genre. This one is OK, but nothing fancy.

Say You Will: Totally mediocre song, I had to concentrate in order to listen it in it's entirety.

Rollin': Boogie song with drum machine (!) played by the Turners. Simplistic, I had fun listening to it, but it doesn't stand out.

You: The best song do far. Nice U2 style riff, catchy composition overall, unusual lyrics about a woman that found success as a sugar girl but Martin Turner loves her the way she is. A coincidence that Martin wrote one song on his own and it's the best? Hell no.

Hard Times: Straightforward rocker, fun but we've listened to thousands like this.

Standing In The Rain: Some good guitar work, but nothing special in general... A mediocre finale to a mediocre album.

RATING: Hard to imagine how this guys that composed such good/great albums as their first five and No Smoke Without Fire struggle that much to find inspiration for so long time. It's 1991 and since 1980 they have wrote only TWO SONGS worthy of their hey days. This album offers nothing significant to the listener, and it has to be given 2 stars. Slightly worst than Number the Brave.