Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Album review

0

Rogue Mag Music Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album review

It’s out this week for you to buy, but those nice folks at EMI gave us an early listen. Here’s our thoughts.

Ah the Gallagher brothers. You have to admire that they’ve remained a focal point for discussion in British popular culture ever since their stratospheric rise to fame, nearly two decades ago, marked by 1994’s ‘Definitely Maybe.’ An album, which will no doubt, in a few years time, be given a similar amount of praise and treatment, the like of which we’ve seen Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, receive in the last month, that marked it’s 20 year anniversary. The kind of records which define a generation and “still sound[s] like the future” as Noel himself put it, talking about ‘Nevermind’ in a recent issue of NME. The kind of albums you don’t forget. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds unfortunately, isn’t one of these albums.

But then again, very rarely an album is. I agree, it is unfair to weigh up post-Oasis releases with their past glories, but it is a difficult task. Not made any easier by the brother Gallagher themselves. Liam described his first release by his new band Beady Eye, last year, as the best thing he’s done since, ‘Definitely Maybe.’ While in a recent interview Noel also alluded to that era, describing the hype awaiting his upcoming tour this autumn and winter, as like the buzz surrounding those gigs back in ‘94. Obviously this kind of chat is typical of the pair, and it does seem suitable to look at it as trying to out-do and undermine each other’s, new musical ventures. After all, nowadays it seems that very discussion surrounding the boys, is usually more so to do with their egos, controversy and all around tense, now even tenser relationship. Rather than their actual musical output.

If we were to let the music on ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ do the talking however, what we find is a similar attitude to the one spoken by Noel and Liam in their various promotions. It seems to make unfulfilled reminisces and promises to the sound of Oasis in their heyday. The opening chords to ‘If I Had a Gun’ sound teasingly similar to ‘Wonderwall.’ But soon falls flat, before any hint of a chorus. At the same time, the record is largely acoustic driven and is not the kind of album to make a 15 year old fall in love with Rock and Roll and feel like he can take over the world.

That’s not to say that the album is without catchiness or charm. ‘AKA Broken Arrow’ and ‘I Wanna Live in a Dream’ boast the kind of great chorus, absent from ‘If I Had a Gun’, both however fail to meet the dizzying, sing-along heights present in the likes of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ or ‘Slide Away’. Oasis at their very best. Lead single ‘The Death of You and Me’ manages this, yet is sonically, more alike to ‘The Importance of being Idle’ from 2005’s ‘Be Here Now.’ Overall the album seems to express the sentiment from the title of, arguably Oasis’ last great single. This album could be forgiven for feeling rushed. After all Oasis split in August 2009, while Noel only revealed the plans for this record in April 2010, the same month his brother released Beady Eye’s ‘A Different Gear, Still Speeding.’ In actuality, there is an element of laziness to this record. The greatest example of this, is the inclusion of the song ‘Stop the Clocks’ at the conclusion of the album. A song written whilst Noel was still in Oasis, finding its origin in the early 2000’s. This song has reached mythical status amongst the bands fan-base, with little known about it until now, except that it was written around the same time as other lesser known classics such as ‘The Masterplan’ and ‘Acquiesce

Once again, you wait for a chorus to match the sheer awesomeness of these songs, and it just doesn’t come. In fact there isn’t one at all. The true sting of this song however is it’s outro…….it’s brilliant. In comes, a bust of energetic psychedelica that capture the electric spirit of those early Oasis album, as well as showing a departure. It makes you wish that the rest of the album sounded like this. Unfortunately, Noel and his birds rarely soar this high.

5/10

Kieran Owen.

CLICK HERE FOR OFFICIAL TICKETS FOR NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here