Ash have announced a new single ‘Buzzkill’ ahead of their forthcoming eighth album ‘Islands’ and an appearance at the Belfast leg of BBC’s Big Weekend festival.

The single finds the Northern Irish indie pop legends returning to the Infectious label, who released their classic Number One albums 1977 and Free All Angels.

Singer Tim Wheeler explained how members of The Undertones ended up providing backing vocals on the song. "The day I wrote Buzzkill, it took me a while to stop laughing cos it’s so fun, dumb and full of unnecessary swearing,” he said. “We used to know a band called Buzzkill in Belfast in the 90s and I think their name has been in my mind for all that time wanting to get into a song. Having seen The Undertones playing a couple of times recently I was guiltily thinking how much the backing vocals I’d written for ‘Buzzkill’ were mimicking their style. So I thought it would only be right to ask Damien (O’Neill) and Mickey (Bradley) to sing on it and we were honoured when that they said yes, despite all the filthy cussing. It’s a fun song and will hopefully ignite a few mosh-pits for us this year.”

The album, released on 18 May, was recorded in New York and produced by Wheeler and his bandmates, with additional production from mixer Claudius Mittendorfer. The track list is:

True Story
Annabel
Buzzkill
Confessions In The Pool
All That I Have Left
Don’t Need Your Love
Somersault
Did Your Love Burn Out?
Silver Suit
It’s A Trap
Is It True?
Incoming Waves

Besides a set at the Belfast Big Weekend event on May 26, Ash also play at Live At Leeds on May 5. More dates will be announced shortly.