Ashkey Sherlock - Just A Name (2023) [CD Rip]

All roads lead to Manchester. Northern Britain’s cultural powerhouse spits out a great band every generation, and as he sparks up 2023 with debut album Just A Name, the smart money is on Ashley Sherlock to plant the city’s flag in a music scene that needs the real deal more than ever.

Having supported Kris Barras Band, The Quireboys and Laurence Jones, released two acclaimed EPs and garnered praise from Louder Than War (“It’ll put a big stupid grin on your face”) and Get Ready To Rock (“Leaves you wanting more”), Ashley Sherlock’s Ruf Records debut Just A Name will ensure you remember his. Recorded in four days last December at Manchester’s Hallam Mill, the material twists and turns, nodding to soul, pop, hard rock, and never taking the easy option of a twelve-bar trudge.

Opener Trouble is a sweet and sour rocker, announcing both Sherlock’s gravity-defying falsetto and a guitar touch that builds stormcloud riffs towards a fret-flaying solo. The raw jangle of Realise is edgy and urgent, while Goodbye To You’s stabbed chords and sudden silences seep drama.

Sherlock is just as powerful when he slows it down. I Think That She Knows is rueful and reflective. Our Love is delicate as angel hair, worthy of comparison to Buckley’s Grace. Rolling with a rhythm that feels like a Wild West covered wagon, Time isn’t quite like anything else on the radio. Empty Street starts as an intimate moment, the singer-songwriter singing in our ear, before building to a soaring chorus that could puncture the mainstream.

Just A Name – but Ashley Sherlock will be on everyone’s lips when this modern-classic debut is released and these songs are scratched onto setlists throughout 2023. Today, Manchester, tomorrow the world.