corin ashley & the chocolate olivers

the abbey road session: “badfinger bridge” 7” (Elefant SPAIN)

A valued Big Takeover contributor since 2002, aficionados already knew Ashley as a prime power-pop singer/songwriter/guitarist in Boston rockers, The Pills. Here he makes multitudes of lifelong Beatles lovers like me drool over this Abbey Road Studio Two session in London’s St. John’s Wood, the ghosts of white-coated George Martin, Norman Smith, Ron Richards, and Geoff Emerick suffusing every mic. In a major coup, he further coaxes half of another fondly-recalled Liverpool foursome, The Boo Radleys (guitarist/songwriter Martin Carr and drummer Rob Cieka), plus their old associate Ed Ball (piano) and Posies star Ken Stringfellow (backing vocals), to join him! Thankfully, the staunch talent and timeless setting are put to sterling use: Ashley and Co. tame two top tunes, both originals nodding unashamedly to famed Beatles discoveries/cohorts Badfinger. Ashley sings like the second coming of Pete Ham (1947-1975) with some Band on the Run-era Paul McCartney edge in his top-range, especially on the honestly-titled “Badfinger Bridge”—which feels like a 1971 George Harrison-produced Straight Up classic, like “Take It All.” The flipside “Second Hand Halo” is similar, only it borrows McCartney’s “Taxman” bassline (which Paul Weller lifted for The Jam’s “Start,” Ride stole for “Seagull,” etc., etc.). Both are inordinately catchy, as hard to forget as the original Abbey Road legends they lionize—that says loads.