Their latest, Nu-Clear Sounds, is a beautiful pop album masked as an assaulting rock record. Both in concert and on their album art, Ash put on rock and roll star veneers, yet in their music they come across as modern day punk minstrels who somehow manage to infuse bubblegum pop with meaning. In "Aphrodite" and "Burn Out," lead singer Tim Wheeler brings a fragile voice to lyrics which examine the mortality and weaknesses in relationships. In "Jesus Says" and "Wild Surf," Ash combine grunge, punk and surf-rock as they woefully describe the pain of being rock stars.

All of this praise, however, does not mean that Nu-Clear Sounds is flawless. When Ash try to rock out like one of their idols, Nirvana, they substitute musical coherency for sonic volume. At points (namely on "Numbskull"), their lyrics reach a level of drunken, adolescent triteness (probably because, not more than two or three years ago, they were all drunken adolescents). Yet, overall, the good qualities of this album, not to mention it's unbelievable catchiness (it's like musical heroin), far outweigh the bad. Nu-Clear Sounds is, by a landslide, the purest pop treasure of the year.