Daniel Ash: Daniel Ash : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

It's always wise to approach Daniel Ash with a whiff of caution. The Love and Rockets frontman hit his creative and commercial stride in the mid-Eighties with classic singles like "So Alive" and "All in My Mind," and he's been playing catch-up ever since. His last solo album, 1992's Foolish Thing Desire, was a close enough approximation of his erstwhile band's gothic-techno blend, but it was never going to be the real thing. Ten years on, the flimsy synthesizer beats and electronically enhanced vocal tricks of songs such as "Hollywood Fix" and "Sea Glass" prove that little has changed, although the shift to a microscopic independent label has done away with even the most basic layer of quality control. Exactly one track -- "Burning Man" -- passes without inviting an immense sense of embarrassment for the pallid Bono doppelganger on the album cover.

AIDIN VAZIRI
(February 4, 2002)