Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Album Review)
Thursday, 06 October 2011
Written by Dave Ball
A little over two years on from Oasis’ rather abrupt break up, big brother Noel releases his debut album later this month to much anticipation and speculation on what it may include. The biggest surprise of all may strangely be that there are no real surprises. While rumours spread about possible new directions after Noel kept himself away from the media spotlight for a large portion of his time away, what he actually comes out with is an album which shows every influence and feeling that we’ve always associated with him.
Over the last twenty years Noel Gallagher has soundtracked a generation of people who grew up during the ‘Britpop’ era, during which time he wrote some of the most well loved and biggest selling songs of all time. All the while he provided a steady supply of B sides which hinted at another side to his writing which it was always assumed would be turned out in a solo project at some point and now, with his High Flying Birds it has arrived.
All the influences you would expect to hear are liberally scattered through this album, sounds of ‘The Kinks’, ‘The La’s’ and ‘The Beatles’ pop up on a regular basis as well as the expected Oasis esque feel. Going in you expect to hear euphoric choruses, sing along lyrics and instantly memorable melodies and that’s exactly what you get. However it’s not as simple as a re-hash of what he’s done and heard before.
Indeed, album opener ‘Everybody’s On The Run’ kicks things off with a mass of strings and a backing from the Crouch End Choir, who were most recently seen performing with Ray Davies. It provides a constantly undulating wall of sound before Noel’s trademark vocal kicks in more strongly than it has seemed when still part of Oasis, perhaps a sign of an increased comfort now he is truly his own boss.
There are plenty of the traditional Noel moments too. Throughout the album there is a trail of melancholic lyrics wrapped up in layered guitars, a healthy smattering of strings and rolling drums while almost every track has you humming, tapping or singing along from the very first listen, second track ‘Dream On’ already has the sound of a live favourite.
Two ‘lost’ Oasis songs appear in the form of ‘(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine’ and ‘Stop The Clocks’ both of which offer versions far superior to those which have floated around the internet for several years now. ‘Stop The Clocks’ providing a spectacular close to the record as it builds to a noisy crescendo before quickly sliding off among a reverberating echo of feedback.
Already released singles ‘The Death Of You And Me’ and ‘AKA...What A Life!’ have already been heard by most and happily the latter provides the weakest moment of the album with its dance inspired sound feeling half-hearted and a little confused. Noel himself has said he had to be persuaded to keep the track, perhaps he shouldn’t have listened.
The undoubted highlight of the album is ‘If I Had A Gun...’ which is another that has had various versions doing the rounds on the internet. It’s wistful lyrics and softly delivered vocal provide a dreamy feeling while ‘Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks’ shows a side of Noel we haven’t seen much of as he makes a strong lyrical statement. An unapologetically anti-war song wrapped in a shiny Kinks-pop tune singing of soldiers who “go to heaven on holiday” is much more direct than a typical Noel lyric and it’s a positive sign of what may come later in his solo career.
The main complaint people are likely to have with this album is that it doesn’t sound different enough and there are undoubtedly some lazy moments, the intro to ‘Dream On’ for example sounds eerily similar to that of Oasis’ ‘Lyla’. However, this was never likely to be some sort of groundbreaking piece of music. That sounds like it’s being saved for Noel’s ‘other’ album where he has teamed up with Amorphous Androgynous, due to be released early in 2012.
This isn’t the masterpiece many fans would have hoped for or expected, although I’m sure some will claim it to be but it is still a very good album. What has to be remembered is that, despite feeling like he’s been around forever this is a first attempt at a solo effort and, to compare to his most obvious peer in this situation, it stands up very well to Paul Weller’s self titled solo debut. The true test will be if Noel can progress his solo sound the way Weller has done since.
Over the past twenty years Gallagher senior has established himself as one of the best songwriters Britain has produced and this album will do nothing to tarnish that reputation while leaving plenty to anticipate what may come next.
'Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds' is released on October 17th on Sour Mash Records.
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Over the last twenty years Noel Gallagher has soundtracked a generation of people who grew up during the ‘Britpop’ era, during which time he wrote some of the most well loved and biggest selling songs of all time. All the while he provided a steady supply of B sides which hinted at another side to his writing which it was always assumed would be turned out in a solo project at some point and now, with his High Flying Birds it has arrived.
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