ALBUM REVIEW – “Ashlyn” by Ashe

By Josh Mandell

Ashe’s breakout hit ,“Moral of the Story” was a delightful outlier in the pop radio mix of 2020. Over quiet strings and piano, the singer surveys the wreckage of a messy divorce with brutal honesty (“So I never really knew you/God, I really tried to’) and grim humor (“Talking with my lawyer, she said ‘where’d you find this guy?’”) As the song builds into a thundering bass drop, she shares some hard-earned wisdom: “Some mistakes get made – that’s alright, that’s okay. You can think that you’re in love, when you’re really just in pain.” 

Years before the surprise success of “Moral of the Story”,  Ashlyn Rae Wilson was best known as a featured vocalist on EDM tracks. In those collaborations, her smooth soprano vocals were mostly decorative, brought in to serve a male DJ’s preferred vibe. This unfortunate dynamic crept into her first solo EP, The Rabbit Hole, which blended sounds  from rock, jazz, and trip-hop into unremarkable indie-pop tunes. Ashe’s debut album Ashlyn, released this May, introduces a much more compelling artistic identity, delving deeply into the “Story” of her failed marriage and proving her talent for confessional songwriting. 

Ashe has said that Carole King’s classic divorce album Tapestry was a major inspiration for her writing on Ashlyn. Musically,  the album’s rich harmonies, catchy bass lines, and layered guitars evoke the classic rock sounds of the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Some lines, like “You went to Kansas for romances” sound like they were penned by Paul McCartney himself.  

Ashe isn’t just an “old soul” through her taste in music. Now 28, she really is older, and probably much wiser, than most pop stars of the current moment. On Ashlyn, she regretfully considers the mistakes of her early 20s – rushing toward an idealized vision of marriage, and finding that she simply wasn’t ready for it. In “Moral of The Story”, she thinks back to painting her house with her ex-husband, “just like my grandparents did, so romantic – but we fought the whole time.” The lovely ballad “Maybe When I’m Older”, also recalls her naïve ideas of domestic bliss (“playing house, immature, picking out furniture”) as it paints an even darker portrait of a frantic, toxic relationship – “injuries, shower sex –  I was holding on for dear life.” While those emotional wounds still sting, she’s been through enough to understand that they will heal with time. “Right now, ‘I’m sorry’ burns through me, darling,” she admits. “But I can’t help but think, in 30 years, it won’t.” 

While it offers a few breakup anthems,  this mature equanimity is the prevailing mood of Ashlyn.  The sentiment peaks in three consecutive tracks near the end of the album – “Not Mad Anymore”, “Always” and “Moral of the Story” –  that successfully push the limits of her singing voice, and capture the bittersweet feelings of forgiveness and moving on.

Ashe pours several years worth of memories and feelings into Ashlyn, and it drags on a bit too long as a result. “Ryne’s Song”, a poignant tribute to her brother who recently died by suicide, seems out of place with the album’s main storyline. It also might have been worth cutting some of the tracks that share very similar reflections on why her marriage didn’t last, and how she’s come to terms with it.  The closing tracks “Serial Monogamist” and “Kansas”, which are inspired by her post-divorce rebound, are a fun change of pace.

Ashe clearly is a student of classic rock, but she perhaps owes even more to her younger peer Billie Eilish, who led the way in bringing dark, retro-inspired pop into the mainstream. FINNEAS, Billie’s older brother and primary collaborator, produced and co-wrote “Moral of the Story” and also sings with Ashe on the catchy opening track, “‘Til Forever Falls Apart.” While those are his only credits on Ashlyn, FINNEAS and Billie’s signature sound looms over the entire album  –  its jazz-pop melodies; breathy vocals; and artful blending of delicate acoustic instruments with heavy bass synths.

While it leans heavily on these influences, Ashlyn is by far Ashe’s most authentic work yet. Few of her indie-pop contemporaries have made an album so cohesive, catchy and evocative. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of her story.