Not for the first time, Liam Gallagher recently stunned a fairly large number of people with something he said.
At a show in front of a record industry-crowd, he attempted to justify his new album being written with collaborators. "It ain't all about the music," he said in an audible intake of breath. "It's also about being a cool cunt like me"."
Oasis or no Oasis, if you needed a precise articulation of the difference between Liam and Noel Gallagher, that would probably do it. One is still justifying himself, while the other has comfortably made it. One knows there's more to the magic of rock 'n' roll than just the music; there's attitude and charisma. And, actually, the other knows that too, but prefers to push his own party line. Namely that its all about the songs.
Interestingly, for so irreconcilable a pair, right now, Liam and Noel actually have quite a lot in common. Not that for a second Big Brother would see it this way, but he - in his way - is also using guest writers, looking for a way forward. Rather than present another album of great rockers and midtempo ballads, here he has enlisted the help of producer/remixer/movie soundtracker David Holmes to reimagine his meat and potatoes as a rather more exciting plate of food.
Early remarks about the record were of it's purported "psychedelic" sound. This might perhaps make long long-service Noelers cast their minds back to the tracks he cut about three years ago with the psychotropic Amorphous Androgynous crew, or further, to 1996's "Setting Sun", which cast him as the monk on the mountain top in the Chemical Brothers' own "Tomorrow Never Knows".
The Amorphous collaboration ended badly, with Noel apparently junking their proposed LP and Garry Cobain from AA describing Noel as "too afraid to be weird".
Nonetheless, two tracks "The Mexican" and "The Right Stuff", offered a pleasant space/time slippage and made it onto the last Noel album 2015's "Chasing Yesterday".
Apart from the possibly "It's A Beautiful World", which has an agreeably droney vibe before mutating into a Coldplay-style anthem, this album will not fry your brain, though that's not to say that a substantial change has not been attempted.
Encouraged by Holmes to collaborate, Noel has pushed as far out of his comfort zone as a person can while still having Paul Weller and Johnny Marr guest. Rather than presenting completed songs to his producer, the pair -working together on and off since 2013, apparently - have jammed, and listened, then revisited the material to turn into something more like a song.
It has yielded some interesting moments. Lead-off single "Holy Mountain" imagines 'The Sweet' covering "Diamond Dogs", or a Phil Spector production of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs". It is, as Noel has said, a lot of fun. "If Love Is The Law" continues the mood, this time channelling the spirit of A Christmas Gift To You From Philles Records, with some appealing sleigh bells and a flavour of "That's Entertainment" by The Jam.
"The Man Who Built The Moon?" near the end of the album, takes the tune and and rhythm of "Wonderwall", and puts it in the epic setting of a Bond Theme. Additional nods to a more widescreen production come with "interlude: Wednesday PT1" and the closing "End Credits".
Best by some distance though is "Black And White Sunshine". It's not unfamiliar territory by any means (Except for mention of "thanks and praise", which gives it a flavour of Sunday School we probably never expected from him), and it is very good indeed. And entirely unfamiliar guitar rift opens proceedings with a Johnny Marr level of freshness and virtuosity. the chorus, with reference to ships coming in, is jubilant in the pure Knebworth fashion. The descent back to the verse is done with some tastefully basic guitar playing.
If this excellent rocker were surrounded by a family bearing some strong genetic resemblances to it, "Who Built The Moon?" would be a superior album. That's not quite the case, sadly. "Keep On Reaching" find Holmes pushing some Curtis Mayfield presets. "She Taught Me How To Fly" is a fusion of Pulp's "Common People" with Blondie's "Heart Of Glass". And even if Noel doesn't like to talk about The Beatles any more, there's no hiding that "Be Careful What You Wish For" sounds rather like the riff from "Come Together".
Which is a strange thing about the album. As the album's bonus track (a live-in-the-studio version of "Dead In The Water") makes plain, Noel has broadened his horizons beyond the plaintive acoustic ballad. But to still be making records that sound a bit like other records after all this experimentation suggests he's gone an awfully long way round the houses simply to end up exactly where he started.
07/10 By John Robinson
Source: Uncut Magazine
