Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (2011)

8/10

The Chief shows them how it’s done

Fans of Oasis, and specifically of Noel Gallagher, will have been eagerly anticipating this moment; when the brains behind Britain’s biggest band of the 1990s would move out of the shadow of his little brother to show the world how he could front a band. Doubts over whether Noel could fulfil a lead role persisted, but a strong solo debut will have silenced most of those voices. 

While Beady Eye, the remaining members of Oasis, have delivered a few decent tunes of their own, the feeling can’t be helped that something is missing from their music. You get a sense of what that is not far into the High Flying Birds’ opener, “Everybody’s On The Run”; a raw sense of emotion and lyrics so absorbing as to belie their simplicity.

Noel’s not afraid to try an epic-sounding track and it shows on former Oasis demo “(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine” and the gripping “If I Had A Gun...” The latter is a great example of the excellent lyricism of which Noel is capable, a violent-sounding title for a song about love and devotion.

It might just sound like Noel up to his old tricks. Hearing songs that sound very Oasis-like “Dream On” or some of the band’s unreleased tracks like (the admittedly lovable) “Stop The Clocks” could lead you to believe that he’s just brought out another Oasis record with newer members.

In truth, Gallagher has been trying a few new things. Not content with sticking to a simple Britpop formula, he mixes things up with an orchestra and choir on the opening track as well as a brass section on “The Death Of You And Me”. He ventures into politicised songwriting with “Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks”, a track that some have described as Kinks-like. There’s even a brief flirtation with dance music, via the piano housey “AKA... What a Life!”

And what is pleasing is that the quality remains high throughout; this is one of those records which doesn’t really have a bad song on it. Whether it’s an emotional headrush of a track, a familiar-sounding rework or something a bit different, the attention to detail and beautifully simple songwriting are constant features. You can see why Noel’s in no hurry to reunite with Liam. The fact that the younger Gallagher is the better singer has never been in question, but the man they used to call The Chief is confident as frontman on his new project. This could be an exciting period for him as an artist; look out for a collaboration album with electronic act Amorphous Androgynous (a.k.a. The Future Sound of London) in 2012.

This album was released by Sour Mash on 17 October 2011, available at Noel's website or Amazon.