Yesterday is once more the new tomorrow and duly Ash Gray & The Girls have made the future into the summer of love for at least for the duration of their album “Born In The Summer”. Replaying the past is hardly a crime but will the wearing the rose tinted glasses of times gone be enough to allow this New York based band to make its musical mark?
In a way it does as this laidback male and harmony female vocal sound has never really dated and remains easy on the ear. Also in this band’s favour are the very decent pop songs with especially “All The Good Girls” and “Apple Eye” finding the perfect balance between mellow west coast folk rock and Brill Building catchiness. The most polish, however, is reserved for “Goodbye”, a song that so successfully duplicates the innocence of fifties American pop music that surely even Phil Spector would find inspiration within its elegantly performed verses.
“Born In The Summer” makes perfect sense as the soundtrack to the kind of summer you are too young to ever have had and that works just fine for me.
The album is available from the usual places including CD Baby.